Last Second Gamble
by Attrix
Summary: When Lily and James find out about the prophecy and that the Dark Lord would be coming for their son, preparations are made but when the product of an experimental spell and the killing curse occur, unforeseen results happen. In-progress, hoping for slow but steady updates. New to writing so let me know how it is.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N. Harry Potter is not mine, but I am happy to play with the world and see what happens. Enjoy!**

Last Second Gamble

 _July 31, 1981_

Lily sighed, she just wanted to have an enjoyable day celebrating her son's first birthday. The words of prophecy still ringing in her ears. Lily Potter looked at her pride and joy, the small black-haired green-eyed little boy playing with a large black dog. "Padfoot please be careful with my son, you already about destroyed the sitting room last week!" she declared in exasperation.

"Lils, they are fine! They can't do anything that we can't fix." Came from the love of her life James Potter as he came and gave her a hug. As the dog-man turned back into his humanoid form Sirius barked "I never cause any problems or make a mess!" Earning a glare from the red haired matron of the home. "Well.. er.. maybe I will just umm tone it down a bit," Sirius meekly declared.

Lily walked up and took her son from the man's arms. "Come here my precious baby, Mommy won't let this mangy mutt corrupt you-". "I resent that!" "-anymore than he has already tried. I just know you are going to be a good son and follow in your momma's footsteps." Harry just giggled.

 _Flashback_

"Lils, he is beautiful, he must take after you!" James declared lovingly. "He looks just like you James, except those eyes, they are like mine, but what should we name him?" stated Lily. "Well how about Harry?" James replied.

"No, I don't want my son with that name, just look at him! He deserves something nobler, how about Harrison?"

"I love it Lils, Harrison James Potter… but can I call him Harry occasionally, Harrison could end up being a mouthful all the time?"

"I suppose that will be fine"

 _End Flashback_

She walked with Harry playing with her long red hair towards her husband and made eye contact with him letting him know they needed to wrap things up. James picking up on his wife's need stood up and announced " Thank you Padfoot, and Moony for coming for Harrison's birthday, I know it's hard to do much with the war and all but I'm so glad that my brothers in all but blood were able to make it. I do wonder where Wormtail is, but I'm sure he just got busy and couldn't make it. However, Lily and I got some word from Dumbledore today that has given us a lot to think about. I'll try to let you know what all is going on later but for now we need to retire."

"James, Lily, you know if there is anything at all that we can do to help just tell us and we will" stated Sirius with Remus nodding in agreement.

"Anything at all, James you've done so much for me as it is and Lily you have never judged me for my condition so whatever I am able to do please tell me and I will do what I can" Remus said passionately.

"We will, but for now you two just do your best to stay safe. You are my brothers, I don't know what I would do without you two." James finished as they flood away to their respective homes.

Later that night while lying in bed, little Harry already asleep in his crib, Lily turned to James, "Honey, I'm so scared. If Dumbledore is to be believed than someone else overheard part of that bloody prophecy which could get back to that mad man. That will put a target on our Son's back and I couldn't bear anything happening to him James. What are we going to do?!"

"Lily, we are going to be okay, Harry will be okay. We have already stood against him a few times, and got away with little to know harm, we can do it again. As you know Albus believes that we should go under fidelius, the idea has merit you know? We can just get Sirius to be our secret keeper, you know he would never betray us-"

"But James that would put Sirius is danger! If anything would happen to him it would almost be as if we condemned him ourselves if he were to get caught!" interrupted Lilly.

"I know dear, it isn't what I would prefer, but you know the situation calls for some more desperate measures if we are to keep our son safe."

"I know, I just wish that there was another alternative that could keep us all safe… James, I guess we can go ahead and go through with this, but I'm going to do my best to find something whether is an old ritual or spell that can keep him safe or even if I have to develop something myself. You know I came across some pretty old tomes in my time as an unspeakable, not to mention anything that we may have in the family books. You know as well as I that the Potter's and the Peverell's both dabbled in all types of magic from the darkest it to the lightest of them. If there is anything at all, I can probably find it there."

"If anyone can find it, I know you can Lily. I wish that my mum and dad were still here so that they could help us, though, I'm not sure how much mom's family magic would have done to help. Uncle Charles and aunt Dorea may could help but I don't know where I would be able to find them with us looking at going into hiding and I would ask Sirius but you know how he is about the family."

"Thank you, I'll let you know if there is anything that you can do. In the meantime just do what you can to keep us all safe."

"I love you Lily and we will get through this." Said James as he hugged her close to him.

"I love you too James" Lily whispered back.

As the months began to slip by, Lily put everything that she had into her research with James having to occasionally plead with her to get some sleep so that she wouldn't stay up late into the night. He could see that it was exhausting her but he didn't know what he could do to help her. He had already worked out the details of the fidelius which they had made Peter the secret keeper after Dumbledore saying that he would be the least likely of the Marauders to be looked at for the role. Dumbledore cast the charm himself in early August allowing them to slowly start getting used to the changes in lifestyle. James was trying to keep himself busy between playing with Harry and doing what he could to stay in shape while making sure he was around to give Lily a hand if she needed it. It was hard on him seeing his wife looking more and more tired and stressed when one day in late September she came running into the room while he was playing with Harry on a toy broom that he had gotten him.

"James I found it! I found something that should be able to possibly block the killing curse! All I have to do is alter the arithmetic equation to account for-"

"Woah, slow down Lils and take a breath" smiled James.

As Lily began to explain what she found being a sort of combination of multiple rituals across between a few different family tomes and a couple of obscure ones found in some of the old books borrowed from the unspeakable department, James' smile slowly grew until he was beaming with hope.

"Lily! This is amazing, if we can get this to work than our boy will finally be safe from that wanker!"

"I know! I better get back to work, this spell won't work out itself!" and with a quick hug and kiss to James, she hurried over to Harry and said "I'm going to get this for you my sweet, Momma won't let you down." Looking back to James she stated, "James we need to prepare ourselves for the worst, as in what if we don't survive but Harry does. He needs to know who he is and where he comes from as well as what our hopes and dreams may be from him and his family history. He will need to know what his place in the world is if we aren't there to guide him."

"Of course Lils," said a troubled James. He didn't want to think about a future that wouldn't have him with his son or one that his son would have to grow up without knowing the love of his parents. He just hoped that this letter precaution would end up being unneeded. Preparing himself for bed he tried dispelling the lingering thoughts from his mind looking at his son that he would do anything for if that meant keeping him safe. "I will protect you Harrison, no matter what, I will protect you."

 _October 31, 1981_

In a town called Godric's Hollow, a family was sitting in a house that nobody seemed to notice was even there, the parent's playing with their dark-haired son. They were seemingly happy with their little who was squealing in delight whenever his father would pick him up and move him around in the air as if he was flying while the mother looked on happy at her child's apparent joy. The only sign that anything may be wrong was if you looked at either of the parent's you could see the signs of stress around the eyes and the subtle indications of fatigue in their movements. The Potters had been in hiding for months now, not really having the opportunity to leave their self-made prison. Out of seemingly nowhere, James turned to Lily with fear in his eyes saying the two words that made her world seem to start crashing down around her, "The Wards."

"Lily take Harry and get away from here, please, I will do my best to hold him off and catch up." James hurried out.

"James I can't he must have placed wards of his own," Lily replied. "James the spell isn't finished, I don't know if it will work right now."

"We have to try, if we do nothing, he will die. At least with this he may have a chance. GO!" he yelled.

With tears in her eyes, Lily took what possibly may be the last look at her husband ever. Grabbing Harry from James, she ran up the stairs and placing him in his crib with his blanket with the letter to him placed within the folds. As soon as she had him settled, she began chanting only stopping in the appropriate places to take a breath, eyes never once leaving her son despite the sounds of conflict coming from below. Finishing, she bent down to give her son one last kiss saying, "I love you son, I did everything that I could. Be safe, and be the best that you can be in life."

Turning around, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Bracing herself for the possible confrontation and how she could possibly keep Harry safe, she quickly dried her eyes and watched as the door slowly opened. Emerald meeting red, a vision of imminent death entered the room.

"Stand aside and I will spare you." A slippery voice full of meaningless promises stated.

"And let you kill my son? I would never!" Lily rebutted throwing a cutting curse hoping to catch him off guard.

Batting the spell away, the figure known as Lord Voldemort began to laugh "Well no loss for me, _Avadra Kedavra!_ " As the green light connected with the red haired woman's chest, the image of life slowly left her eyes. Approaching the crib holding the supposed source of his possible downfall. "And here he is, this mere baby that is going to match my power? Well too bad you will never have the chance. _Avadra Kedavra!"_

When the green spell connected with the child, a miasma of colors began to swirl around him seeming to absorb the spell of death. As the emerald began to mix into the vortex, it began to spin faster and faster becoming a blur of motion. Almost as soon as it began, it stopped then seemed to converge into the baby causing him to disappear in a flash of light.

 _October 31, 1961_

Walking out of St. Mundo's Hospital, a black-headed vision of beauty turned to her equally haired husband with tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry Charlus, I know all you ever wanted was a heir and I wish I could give you that. I don't know what else I could do provide you that."

"It will be fine Dorea, we will figure something out, but my dear, you are all that I truly need in my life. I know I may seem a little disappointed right now, but please just give me a little time and I will be as right as rain." Charlus said while hugging her close.

While trying to collect themselves, a mediwitch ran out to them, "Excuse me sir, ma'am did you not say your name was Potter?"

Turning to face the woman, Charlus responded "Yes, that is us, what can I do for you?"

"Sir we just had a child brought in to us from Godric's Hollow, all he had on him was a blanket and within the blanket was a note addressed to a Harrison Potter. There is nobody that appears to be looking for the child which leads us to believe that there is no family for him except maybe you two."

Looking at his wife, she motioned to him that she wanted to talk to him in private. "Ma'am if you would, please give us a moment." Turning to Dorea he said, "What is it dear?"

"We should go look at this boy, if he doesn't have a family, maybe we can take him in and in a way it will be me giving you that son that you deserve."

"But dear, we don't know if he has a family or not, for all I know they are still looking for him!"

With tears in her eyes, Dorea pleaded with her husband, "Please Charlus, let us just look at him and if worst comes to worst, we take care of him until his family finds him. Can we at least go see him please?"

Knowing that he could never deny Dorea for long while she was giving him those eyes, he turned to the mediwitch and bade her to take them to the child. Reentering the building they were taken up a couple floors and through a few winding hallways to a room at the end of the hall. Walking into the room, they saw a woman watching over a crib with a little boy with emerald eyes and black hair, reading a child's story to him. The mediwitch that lead them to him said "That's him, that's the child that was found."

Mumbling a thank you, Charlus looked at his wife who had already started towards the child lying in the crib. Picking her up to look at him closer, the baby smiled and slowly started drifting off to sleep. "He is beautiful Charlus, he almost even resembles you a bit. "

The woman that had been sitting with the child spoke up, "If you are his family, you should open this letter and see if you can maybe figure out why he was all alone." Shortly after handing Charlus the letter, she left the room to give them their privacy. Seeing that his wife was staring at him pointedly, he opened the letter.

 _To my dear son Harrison "Harry" James Potter,_

 _My sweet boy, if you are reading this letter than you already know that the worst has happened. That your father and I weren't able to hold off the Dark Lord Voldemort. Know that he came after you due to a prophecy spoken to Albus Dumbledore._ _He wouldn't tell us the entire contents of it, but this is what he told us._ _It said,_

 _"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…_

 _Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…"_

 _Unfortunately this narrowed it down to you and one other. You having been born on the 31_ _st_ _of July, 1980 and Neville Longbottom (your god brother) being born on the 30_ _th_ _of July of the same year. As a result your father and I went into hiding using a charm called the fidelius to keep us hidden. We had a friend of your father's a man named Peter Pettigrew was what was called the secret keeper, which meant, we couldn't be found unless he specifically told him. So as you now know, he must have betrayed us to the Dark Lord. We should've just trusted your god father Sirius Black (who we hope will be taking care of you if Alice Longbottom, your god mother, is not able to) to be the keeper, but Dumbledore convinced us that Peter would be less likely to be assumed which is true. Remus Lupin, the last of the Marauders, also known as your father and his group of friends/pranksters) is a werewolf and unfortunately we thought that he might not be trusted due to the Dark Lord recruiting many of them, with that maniac Fenrir Greyback being the primary one. That being said, I still don't believe that he would have turned his back on us, but it's too late to change that now._

 _So knowing that if you were going to have to read this, that your father and I weren't there, we wanted to make sure you knew your family history. Your father is James Fleamont Potter, son of Fleamont Potter and Euphemia Potter nee MacMillan. The Potter family has a rich and very long history that you are the heir of. It is what is considered an Ancient and Most Noble house which is only rewarded to those of high wealth and a long history. Back in the time of the founders and beyond, it was initially called Peverell, but changed it due to people looking to hunt down the family for items of myth called the Deathly Hallows which was associated with the family. The MacMillan family also has a rich history and holds the same status as the Potter Family being an Ancient and Most Noble House. I am what is considered a muggle born, or born to two Muggles. Evans is my maiden name. That being said, James always thought that I could have been adopted due to not having any resemblance to my sister or parents, I was never able to ask before they died. That and I have this ability to speak to snakes, which is called Pareseltongue, which your father believes is only something that can be passed down through the family lines. That being said, with the war and then us going into hiding, I haven't had the chance to go to Gringotts and get my blood tested for my ancestry. You may want to do that someday._

 _I know this is long, but I had a couple of months to think about everything that I wanted you to know. I hope that you have a long and successful life. I want you to push yourself to be the best in all that you do. If that is school, I know you will be smart enough to be at the top of your class, if you want to duel I hope that you push yourself and practice hard to be the best that you can be. If you follow your father and play quidditch, I want you to fly well and show people that you deserve any accolades that you may earn. Finally, I hope that you present yourself well in society, I hope that you never allow anyone to disrespect a person in need. Always treat women with respect and never look to start fight unless you intend on finishing it. Be brave, be cunning, be smart, and be loyal to those who earn it. You can do anything you set your mind to, just be willing to put in the time and work to get there._

 _This is James now, I just wanted you to know that I love you son and as your mom already said, I hope you push yourself to be the best that you can be in life. I know that I played many pranks in my time at Hogwarts and I fully expect you to get your fair share of pranks in as well, I also want you not to make some of the same mistakes I made. Be humble, be courteous of others, be kind, and be helpful to those who need it. Never bully, and don't allow others to do it if you can prevent it. I unfortunately was a cocky git the majority of my time at Hogwarts and it almost cost me the chance to be with your mother. My friends and I were relentless with our pranks towards a man named Severus Snape and it ended up becoming so bad that we played a prank that almost got him killed. Please never be that way, it is something that I will always regret. That being said, even though I spent a lot of time pranking (most being harmless), I also made sure I did my due diligence and graduated at the top of my class only a couple of places after your mother. We were head boy and head girl our seventh year which allowed me to finally win her over, of course that was after proving that I could be serious about things. I became an Animagus in my fifth year with Sirius and Peter to help with Remus' furry little problem and was quite gifted in transfiguration as a whole. Not to mention your mother became a charms and potions mistress, you have all of our strengths wrapped in one so I know the potential for you to be great is there, all you have to do is push yourself and achieve it._

 _Now this letter seems to have become more of a book, but in all reality, we could never write down everything that we want to say to you. We just hope you always remember that we love you and that we hope that you are raised with love and happiness in your life because that is what we would have done our best to provide for you. Never fear that you may betray or disappoint us, just know that we will always love you no matter what you do. We will always watch over you from the other side, so always remember that we are with you. We love you Harrison James Potter._

 _Love,_

 _James Fleamont Potter, Lord of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter_

 _Lily Clarise Potter nee Evan's, Lady of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter_

Closing the letter back up and meeting the eyes of his wife, Charlus took a calming breath and remained silent. His head running over all the information that was contained in the letter. This child was somehow his older brothers grandchild, but from the future and had a Dark Lord out to kill him. Opening his mouth to speak, his wife cut him off, " We should adopt him."

"Dorea are you sure? Maybe we should tell Fleamont and let him take him, it is his grandson after all."

"No, he is already on in years and he has James to look after. He will never be able to do as well as a job at raising another as he would like to. We can raise Harrison here as our own, blood adopt him if you would like to make him our legitimate heir, though I doubt that he would change much if at all with your blood being in him already. As far as James is concerned, we can raise them to where they can become friends with Sirius as well. We can teach him how to wield his future position as head of his house and help him prepare for this supposed Dark Lord. Please Charlus, considering what we learned earlier today, it's almost like it was meant for us to receive this child and to raise him." Dorea pleaded.

"Well, if you really want this, who am I to deny you this? What about his parentage, will we ever let him know?-"

"Of course we will, just when he is old enough understand, maybe by the time he is ready two go to Hogwarts or maybe after. We can cross that bridge when we get there."

"Okay dear, well lets go home."

Looking at the little boy that was sound asleep in her arms, she whispered, "I will never be able to replace your mom, but I will do my best to live up to the standards that she would want for you. I promise I will love you as if you were my own."

Turning to follow her husband she felt a sense of excitement looking forward to actually having the chance to be a mother after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Stepping into a large foyer the signs of wealth evident to even the most unobservant, the polished black marble fireplace and tiles covering the floor, with large windows covered with heavy forest green tapestries. The trim appearing to be a golden enamel color that helped to accentuate the difference in colors but connecting them to create a picturesque vision of elegance. Dorea Potter nee Black carried her new son into the more lived in portions of the manor. Looking around she decided to call for one of the house elves. "Sally!"

"Mistress! What can Sally be doing for you?!"

"Sally, please set up a room for little Harrison. Charlus and I have decided to adopt him and as a result, I will need you and the other elves to help make sure that he is taken care of as best as can be."

"Don't worry Mistress, Sally be taking good care of young Master. He will grow up and be a big strong wizard someday, I can already feel it" she said then popped away to get the new room set up.

Dorea just stared momentarily at the place where the elf just was trying to process what exactly she just heard. The elf can already feel his magic that easily? That shouldn't be possible, usually children don't exactly have enough magic to be felt too easily until around three or four at least due to them showing the first signs of accidental magic around that point with the strongest of wizards and witches showing signs at around two years old at the earliest. Oh how I wish that I could talk to his birth parents to see if he has already been displaying signs of accidental magic by now, it may help me have an idea of just how strong he will be. With these thoughts swirling through her head, she took off to find Charlus and see if he had any thoughts on the matter.

After discussing the day's events, the Potters decided to retire for the evening with the intention of picking up on the morrow. It seemed that they had a good amount that needed to be done in order to make the adoption official as well as doing what it suggested in the letter and getting a heritage test done by the goblins. Charlus also wanted to go talk to his brother and at least inform him of the child if not outright tell him who the child is, but Dorea convinced him to wait at least until after the adoption. She had already latched onto the idea of being a mother to little Harry and didn't want that taken from her. With the looming day ahead they went to sleep, excited for the adoption and a little nervous for the possible conversations that may follow.

Waking up at a relatively early time, the Potters prepared themselves for what could end up being quite the long day when they heard the sound of crying. Sally popped up and declared "Master, Mistress! Young Master be crying and I can't get him to stop!"

Hearing this, they rushed to the room that had been declared as his hearing "I want Mommy!" "Where Pa'foot?!" as well as "Daddyyy!" Hearing this broke their hearts knowing that they couldn't give him what he wanted most. Dorea approached his crib slowly, cooing "It's okay Harrison, your new mum and dad are here for you and we will do anything we can for you." Tears slowly starting to fall from her face, Charlus was taken aback as he had hardly ever seen the normally composed woman starting to break down from the heart wrenching sadness that seemed to have her in its grip. He walked over to her and little Harry collecting both of them in a hug to try to comfort his wife and to hopefully aid in calming down his new son.

After around ten minutes, Dorea had collected herself enough to get going and Harry had finally calmed down a bit after latching onto his new mother with all the strength that his little arms could muster. They started to make their way downstairs to eat a quick breakfast before heading over to Diagon Alley. Stepping through the fire place later found the Potters in the famous Leaky Cauldron. With a quick hello to Tom the barkeeper, they easily made their way out the back into the central hub of magical business in England. Being a weekday and with the school year being underway, instead of a teaming mass of wizards and witches in which one had to push their way through to get to their destination, they were met with more of a casual mix that allowed them to easily make their way to the large white marble construct that was the bank of the magical world, Gringotts.

The guards opening the heavy oak, rune covered doors with a bow towards the couple and child, waited as said family walked into the building heading straight for one of the available tellers. Clearing his voice, Charlus declared, "Master goblin, I am here to see the Potter account manager."

Counting the last few pieces of golden galleons and adding them to one of the stacks surrounding him, the teller looked up to see who exactly was speaking to him. "Ahh Mr. and Mrs. Potter Griphook here will take you to your account manager" he said motioned to the mentioned goblin.

"If you would follow me" Griphook said while heading towards one of the adjacent hallways.

As they followed, Charlus made note that they had made so many seemingly left, right and diagonal turns that it would be almost impossible to find their way without a guide. After several minutes of traveling in every which direction they finally came across the door with Potter Account Manager written on a plaque next to it. Stopping in front of them, Griphook knocked on the door before entering leaving the couple outside waiting. After around five minutes, he reentered the hallway stating, "Account Manager Blackjaw will see you now."

Entering the almost gaudy room with a nod to Griphook, the couple noticed an older goblin with a darkened jaw sitting behind a large desk with stacks of paper weighing down both sides. After a moment, the sharp eyed goblin looked up and eyed the trio carefully. "Mr. Charlus Potter and Mrs. Dorea Potter, and who is this child with you? Take a seat and state your business."

Taking a deep breath and with a look from his wife helping him to steel his resolve Charlus spoke up, " Master Blackjaw, my wife and I have a couple pieces of business that we need to conclude today. We need to blood adopt this boy here as well as do an inheritance test on him. After the test, we would like a copy of the document. We would be willing to pay to do this now if need be so that we won't have to delay it any longer."

Taking a long hard look at the couple, Black jaw finally spoke up, "And just why do you need to have this done today? Is there a possible kidnapping happening with the Potters? And here I would've assumed if any family were to do that it would be someone more like the Lestranges or maybe even the Malfoys."

"It is not a kidnapping attempt! The child is an orphan and we are merely wanting to take him in to raise him with a loving family!" snapped Dorea.

"We shall see won't we? Very well, which would you prefer to do first? The blood adoption or the inheritance test?"

"Maybe we should do the blood adoption first, that may open up more options for the inheritance test" suggested Charlus.

Pulling out a stone basin with runes carved along the border and an ornate dagger, Blackjaw said, "Very well, both of you come and deposit seven drops of blood each into the basin. Then you will take the child and mix seven drops of his blood into the mixture, after that we will smear the new mixture into his open cut and it will heal the wound signifying that the adoption is complete."

After they each did their part, they quickly made a small incision into Harry's arm to allow the flow of blood. As Harry cried, Dorea softly spoke platitudes hoping to calm him to enough to where Charlus could quickly rub the mixture in. After a few seconds, the wound slowly healed leaving a smooth patch of skin with no indication of ever being opened.

"The adoption is complete, do you have a name for your new child?" questioned Blackjaw.

With another quick glance at his wife looking for the affirmative nod to go ahead with what they had discussed, Charlus said, "We are keeping his birth name, Harrison James Potter."

"Very well, we will now do the inheritance test" replied Blackjaw as he pulled out a ruby encrusted knife with a blank sheet of what looked to be an ancient piece of parchment. "With this you will prick his finger again and the knife will absorb the blood while simultaneously healing the wound. After that you will merely place the tip of the knife at the top of the parchment and we will see the results."

With Dorea holding onto the now pacified child, Charlus smoothly pricked his little finger causing a few more tears and wails from the little boy. Hurrying over to the piece of parchment, he placed the tip on the sheet and watched as blood red letters began to form.

 _Harrison James Potter_

 _Born July 31, 1980_

 _Son of:_

 _James Fleamont Potter_

 _Lily Clarise Potter nee Bloodworth_

 _Blood Adopted by:_

 _Charles Frederick Potter_

 _Dorea Elizabeth Potter nee Black_

 _Grandparents:_

 _Fleamont Henry Potter_

 _Euphemia Minerva Potter nee MacMillan_

 _Arcturus Salazar Bloodworth_

 _Valeria Faith Bloodworth nee Dagworth_

 _Heir to Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter (merged with the Ancient and Most Noble House of Peverell)_

 _Heir to Ancient and Most Noble House of Bloodworth (merged with the Ancient and Most Noble House of Slytherin)_

Their eyes slowly widening until the couple had matching appearances of utter shock. It took them several minutes to regain their composure. Dorea finally managed to stutter, "B-bloodworth, th-they were just killed with their only daughter apparently having gone missing. That must be where this Lily 'Evans' disappeared to. The muggle world where she picked up the surname Evans. Master Goblin could we please get that copy of the test? We must be going."

At this time, Charlus finally caught up to speed with events and turned to his wife, stating, "This may present a few complications with my dear brother."

Nodding her agreement, they both bid Blackjaw farewell after collecting the document from him meeting with Griphook outside the room who quickly led them back to the lobby.

Leaving the building they hurried back to a floo connection so that they could make their way to the Potter familial home, Potter Manor. Stepping through, they saw an entrance hall similar to their own except instead of the more subtle greens and golds that were in their manor, this one had deep burgundy tapestries with silver enamel. Overall creating yet another tasteful, and elegant feel that would only speak of the wealth of the owners. After a moment, a house elf popped into view.

"Master Charlus! Mistress Dorea! It be good seeing yous again. And this is the new young Master?" The excitable elf rattled off.

"Yes Tilly, this is our son Harrison. Is my brother and dear Euphemia around? We need to speak to them about an urgent matter."

"I be going to get them."

"Thank you Tilly" said Charlus as the elf quickly popped away.

Waiting a few moments the trio saw an aging couple walk in carrying a small child that looked almost identical to their own minus the eyes. One being more of a hazel while the other being emerald. As the new group came in and both studied the other, the older man finally spoke. "Now little brother, the last that I heard, Dorea wasn't pregnant nor did you have indication that you were going to go looking for a child. However, you obviously have one now, and not only do you have one, but he looks almost like little James here. That leads me to believe that there has been a blood adoption. So, tell me, who is the child and why am I just now hearing about this?"

Taking a moment to collect himself, Charlus walked over to his older brother Fleamont and simply handed him the piece of parchment from Gringotts. Holding it so that Euphemia could also read it, a mixture of emotions flickered across their faces. Confusion, surprise then finally anger. "What is the meaning of this Charlus?!" Demanded Fleamont. "If this is your idea of a prank then it is in poor taste. How could this child supposedly be our grandson, and if he supposedly is why in the bloody hell did you think it would be acceptable to adopt him without talking to me first?!"

Not extremely surprised at the outburst, Charlus spoke in a placating tone, "Fleamont, Euphemia, we were leaving St. Mungos yesterday after we had just received news that Dorea would never be able to provide me a child. In the process of us leaving a mediwitch came and got us saying that they had just had a little baby brought in with no idea if he had any family left. All that was with him was a blanket and a letter addressed to Harrison James Potter. We read the letter and decided that since his parents weren't able to provide him the family he deserves, that we would adopt him as our own since we weren't able to otherwise. After finding out that he was your grandson, we knew that you two had your hands full anyways with little James here. I promise you brother, it was nothing malicious and it was something that came about quite suddenly."

"Do you have that letter with you?"

Charlus turned to Dorea who handed over the letter. "Before you read this, we figured that we are in a better position than you two to also help prepare him for what he will eventually have to face. I think that after reading it yourself, you will even agree with me. I do apologize for springing this on you so suddenly, but we wanted to talk to you now so that little Harrison might be able to grow up being friends with James and even Sirius Black. You will understand that more when you read the letter."

Giving his brother and sister-in-law some time he walked over to sit by Dorea who was struggling to contain the energetic child. "Play!" he exclaimed reaching towards where James was also squirming in his own mothers arms. Suddenly Euphemia gave a bit of a lurch and let go of James who seemed to glide across the room in midair towards Harry who was clapping his hand looking excited. Charlus grabbed him before James could hit the floor and possibly get hurt. All the adults looked at Harry with blank expressions of shock written on their faces. All at once they seemed to reanimate and Euphemia exclaimed the obvious. "That was accidental magic! I know that wasn't from James here either."

Dorea simply looked down at the child that was now playing on the ground with the almost twin. She had felt the surge from him right before James was flying across the room and was trying to work out just how powerful this child would eventually become. Looking at the other adults, she quickly decided that they needed to figure out who they could talk to so that they could figure out what may end up happening with their child. "Fleamont, Euphemia, do you two possibly know anyone that we could discretely talk to so that we could get more of an idea of what we should expect with Harry here? I want to be as informed as possible so that we can take care of him to the best of our abilities."

After a quiet discussion with Euphemia, the matron of the house spoke up, "Dorea dear, we will do what we can to find some information for you. I believe it may be best after all that you two took him in, Fleamont and I, as much as we would love to care for our grandchild, we are getting on in years after all and trying to look after our son in addition to our obviously gifted grandson… Well one is tough enough. If only we were younger, but unfortunately that is not the case. Please raise him to be the best he can be and yes we will allow him and James as well as Sirius I suppose grow up together. That will at least give us the opportunity to get to know our own grandchild. Apparently we didn't have that opportunity to do that in the first place if this letter is anything to go off of."

Charlus looked at his brother before asking if they could go talk in private in the Fleamont's office. After the affirmative, they both walked off leaving the women talking about the children and plans on different things they would do while raising the two, with the said children playing on the ground with a few toys that the elves brought. Upon reaching the office Fleamont sat at the chair behind the desk and motioned for his little brother to take his own seat. "So I have a feeling that you are wanting to discuss the inheritance." After the affirmative nod, Fleamont steepled his fingers together and took on a contemplative expression. After a few moments to consider the situation, he looked back at the Gringotts' document then a small smile formed on his face. "Little brother, I feel that this solution is easier than either of us believed. James can still take the headship of the Potter family. Harrison can take up the headship of the Bloodworth family. Both families are around the same age not to mention they are worth around the same both monetarily and politically. It is a bit of a strange situation to where the father and son both qualify for the headship at around the same time, but this way, both are in a stable financial and political situation. One thing that I would suggest however, is that you try and find this boys lost mother. You know that she apparently was adopted by an Evans family, but it shouldn't be too hard to track them down. If you took her in and became her magical guardian, we could even set up a marriage contract between her and James which would eliminate any chance that something changed and they didn't end up together. I know I would rather not mess with the timeline enough to where they didn't because for all we know, Harrison could cease to exist or something of the sort at that time. We should probably consider looking more into what implications that could also bring about. I may have a friend or two in the unspeakable department that I could discretely question."

"That will work, I didn't really consider trying to find his mother too much knowing that she would end up at Hogwarts eventually, but I suppose this would actually her to receive an upbringing befitting her station. I may have to look into the Bloodworth manor to see if we can possible get it placed in stasis in case Harrison or his mother may want it someday." Charles said after a moment.

"Very well, let us leave the serious business aside for now and make strides towards these goals tomorrow, for now let us go see what my son and grandson as well as our lovely wives are up to.

Heading back through the halls of the large manor, they finally found the rest of their entourage in a cozy room with a small fire lit. The two boys had seemingly decided to fall asleep in their mother's laps, tired from playing so much. As the men ambled into the room, the two women fixed them with a stare that made both men feel shivers down their spine. "It is about time you two show your faces, leaving your poor wives all by our lonesome, doing our best to look after their kids. The children that also need to have the presence of their fathers as well!" Exclaimed Euphemia.

After adopting a sheepish look, Fleamont went around to Euphemia grabbing her hands while getting on his knees, "My dear, please don't hold my lack of timeliness against me. It was Charlus! He kept talking and talking and –""Wait what I did no such thing!" "it was all I could do to finally get him to come down here. Please accept my most humble apology."

After some laughter at Charlus' expense Euphemia said, "You are forgiven, you just better not make it a habit."

"Thank you for gracing me with your forgiveness."

With a slap to his shoulder and an exasperated "prat" the families went back to discussing menial matters like what was happening with the current quidditch standings and who was looking to make a strong run at the next world cup as well as what was happening in the wizangamot and what new idiotic bill someone was trying to get passed. Eventually lunch came about and after eating, Charlus and Dorea declared that it was time for them to part ways. They needed to go and talk to the Blacks and they really weren't looking forward to delaying that any more than need be. Their thoughts were, if we can get all of this out of the way now, then they could finally get on with their lives and raising their child.

Flooing over to the black manor, Dorea call for the house elf Kreacher to fetch the Lord Black Arcturus Black for family business. Seeing the handsome imposing man come into the foyer in which they were waiting, he raised an eyebrow at them "Cousin Dorea and Charlus, I was told that there was family business to be discussed, however I was unaware of anything that may be pressing enough to simply need to pop by and discuss it now."

Shifting the child in her arms so that her older cousin could see him better, Dorea replied "This is our new son, and there are a few things about him that we need to discuss, in private preferably."

Raising an eyebrow at this, he indicated that they should follow him to his study. Once there, he activated a privacy runic array to prevent any possible eavesdropping from the other family members that may be roaming around. "Speak." Was the sole demand as Dorea and Charlus began telling him of Harrisons origins as well as showing him both the letter from his birth parents and the results of the inheritance test.

"So the boy is prophecied to fight this dark lord and yet you still deign to bring him into the family? What if that decision puts our family in danger?! You should have discussed this with me before running off and-"

"Lord Black! He needs us! He has nowhere else to go, and as you saw, he is Charlus' family in the least. For someone that knows that family is the most important thing out there, how could you expect Charlus in the least to not want to take care of him? Not to mention, this is my one opportunity to have a child of my own, and you would berate me of that chance? At least try to understand that I'm doing this for MY family. For the opportunity to have one of my own."

After being interrupted and listening to the abnormal outburst from the normally composed woman that he called his cousin. He began to consider some of the opportunities that the new child could create or the potential problems that could result from his presence. On one hand, there is a child that has untold of potential, if the stories of having accidental magic are to be believed. If that is the case, and the child is one of the family, which would only elevate the Blacks even more and give them an even stronger position in the world. On the other hand, if there is a Dark Lord that will eventually come after him, that could potentially put every one of those associated with the child in danger. Mulling the ideas over in his head he started putting some ideas together. Seemingly coming to a conclusion, he deactivated his privacy room and called for Kreacher, "Fetch me Cygnus and tell him to get in here immediately." With a quick bow the elf popped away.

After a few moments, another dark-haired man with high cheekbones reminiscent of the trait that all blacks seemed to share. Seeing the couple and child already present, a look of surprise passed his face before he schooled his features. "Lord Black you called? Cousin Dorea and Mr. Potter it is good to see you as always."

"Yes, I did. We will be writing up a marriage contract between Narcissa and Harrison-" "What?!""- and I wanted you to be here for it."

"Cousin Arc.. I mean Lord Black, what do you mean a marriage contract? We didn't even discuss that at all and is it not too soon to do that? They are both hardly over a year old!" Dorea exclaimed.

Cygnus simply looked blindsided as he just tried to comprehend what seemed to be happening around him. Arcturus stared impassively at the three other adults and gave them a chance to calm down. "We will be signing this contract to ensure that our family remains united. You decided to bring him into the family Dorea, so do not begin to complain about decisions made about the family. Cygnus you should be happy to know that Harrison here, is a direct descendent of Slytherin himself with the documentation to prove it should you decide to be a foolish skeptic and doubt my word. The issue with only having the blood adoption dear Dorea is that he may decide that since he wasn't born into the family, that he doesn't owe us anything. The marriage contract between him and Narcissa guarantees that he has a vested interest in keeping the family alive and well. Charlus, you should be happy with this because you know that we can help with these threats that will eventually rise to meet your son. Between the training we can help provide and the political clout that our families have, we can only set ourselves up to be at the top for as long as we remain this way in the future. You can almost say that the contract is an unofficial alliance of sorts."

After shooting down any more objections from either party Arcturus began to write down the contract outlining what each family would get as well as ensuring that there were no loopholes that would cause it to be broken for some asinine reason. Double checking the document to make sure that everything necessary was properly outlined, he sent Cygnus to fetch Narcissa so that he could take a drop of her blood as well as a drop of Harrison's blood that would bind them together. As soon as the drops of blood connected with the document and the signature of the guardians and head of house were written, the parchment flashed a golden color signifying that the Contract was now active and that a copy had been sent to Gringotts for safe keeping.

"Well if that concludes our business, I believe that we will need to meet sometime soon to discuss options for the children meeting regularly so that they can grow to get used to the other."

"Lord Black we would also like for Harry to be able to spend time with Sirius" interjected Charlus.

"That can also be arranged. Now unless there is something else…" at this he gave the other adults a hard stare, "let us depart. I have some things that I need to think about and some people that I need to get into contact with."

As they all stood up to leave, Charlus shook hands with Arcturus and Cygnus while Dorea gave them a quick hug, then they went to the floo to go home. It had been a long day of conversation with the unexpected twist causing both Potters to be mentally drained. After calling for Sally to take Harry and get him cleaned and in bed, the two decided that any other things to talk about would need to be discussed later and went to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 _Department of Mysteries_

A tall broad shouldered figure in a long hooded cloak quickly strode into what is known as the department of mysteries. The halls to the uninformed, appeared to be dark and uniform with no way to differentiate one from the next. The bland scenery caused the senses to seemingly blend together creating an effect that completely befuddled the mind of the unprepared. This is why it was dangerous to enter alone without a guide trained in the manner of the unspeakables. However, this man strode through the corridors with a practiced ease. The confidant man entered a circular room with a number of doors surrounding him, each undefinable from the next. Instead of looking from door to door playing a guessing game of where he needed to go, he simply called out "Time" and the circular wall of doors began to spin faster and faster to prevent anyone from being able to follow a specific place. After a moment, the wall began to slow down and finally came to a stop with a door in front of the figure giving off a faint glow.

Once again the man began the trek forward grasping the door, quickly opening and stepping through. When the lock clicked behind him, the door lost the luminescence, and indication of the circular room resetting for the next possible victim to come through. Looking around, the man could see countless hourglasses ranging in size from the dimensions of a thimble, all the way to some as large as couple story tower. At the far end, behind a few desks full of notes sat a couple of people in cloaks of what seemed to be ever changing colors, going from the lightest of greys to the darkest of blacks and all the shades in between. If one were to look at where you would expect to see a face, it would appear as a vision of smoke, with no discernable way to unveil the features hidden within.

It was to this group that the imposing man made his way. "I need to speak with Unspeakable Rocker."

The humanoid, cloak covered shapes slowly turned to face him with one stepping forward. "Speak your business Lord Potter."

Removing his hood revealed the close cropped salt and pepper hair and blue eyes of one Fleamont Potter. "I am here to inquire about an effect that you may be able to provide an answer for."

"Continue."

Refusing to be unsettled by the anti-social behavior of the Unspeakables, the Potter Lord pressed on. "My question is hypothetical in nature of course. What would happen if something was sent back in time and caused the timeline to change. Would that object then cease to exist or would it carry on?"

Unspeakable Rocker turned to converse with the other Unspeakables, speaking in low and soft tones preventing Fleamont from being able to understand the flow or topics of the discussion. After a few minutes, the group straightened up and separated to their previous positions. Waiting another moment, the soft deep voice of Unspeakable Rocker reached his ears "Theoretically speaking, it is dangerous to alter the timeline. Doing so could cause many unknown and far reaching consequences that are impossible to predict. That being said, if said object is in the past when it begins to change, then it would remain in the past and its existence in the previous future would become obsolete, as that future would no longer exist. Tell me Lord Potter, are you planning on trying to change the timeline or why are you here?"

"No, no. That is not the case at all." Thinking quickly he continued, "There is a friend that was considering sending a lost family heirloom back in time to his family but didn't want to continue with the plan if it would create too many issues."

The Unspeakables remained silent, staring at the lone man causing his to want to fidget in discomfort. Refusing to give in to that desire, Fleamont remained stoic and unmoving. Finally they spoke, "If that may be so, leave us. We must get back to our research."

With a small bow of thanks, Lord Potter took his leave with relief in his eyes knowing that the looming conversation with his brother would bear good news after all.

As the months began to progress, Charlus and Dorea began to enjoy the life of being parents. Even though there was a period of transition where they got used to reacting to the needs and wants of baby Harrison, they decided that they wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world. After the group discussion consisting of both the Lords Potter and Black, there was finally a plan to allow the children the opportunity grow up together and learn together both for how to be proper future Lords and Ladies as well as a game plan for contacting possible people for the training that they would need to not only perform at the top of all their peers, but to also get them ready for the future war mentioned in the letters from Lily and James.

Considering the Potter family was already small, it was relatively easy to transition to the new allies and way of life that the parents and their children would be able to conform to. Lord Black on the other hand, had a few more problems considering the high number of members as well as making sure everyone was understanding that the family would always need to stick together no matter what. A threat to one member of the family was a threat to all of the members of the family and anyone not conforming to that mentality would quickly suffer the consequences.

After only a few mishaps from one of his Orion's wife, Walburga of all people, everyone quickly began to realize that the Lord of the Blacks would have no tolerance for disobedience. Instead of the preaching the importance of blood superiority, it became more of an indoctrination of family first and foremost then and other ideas would fall after.

One day in early spring, Charlus came rushing into the parlor where his wife Dorea sat working with Harry on his vocabulary, trying to get him saying words like "Grandfather","Grandmother","Uncle", and "Aunt." Looking towards her excited husband she perked up, "What is it dear that has you in such a hurry?"

"I did it! I finally found her! Lily Bloodworth!" Charlus exclaimed proudly.

Flashing a smile she rushed over to give him a hug, "That's great news Charlus!" Looking at Harry she continue, " You're going to have a new friend soon sweetie, she will be your new sister, well kinda like that at least" she finished looking a bit sheepish with the slip up.

"FRAN'! Play Frand!" Harry exclaimed happily clapping his hands, a smile gracing his chubby cheeks.

With a smile and a look of love in their eyes, the two elder potters shared a look at the bundle of joy that was their son. Finally Dorea turned to Charles, " Are you going to collect her now or what exactly are you waiting for?"

"I'm on my way now I just wanted to let you know the good news."

With a quick kiss on the cheek from his wife and a farewell, Charlus took off to find the long lost Lily Bloodworth. A few hours later and a few compulsions and obliviations later, the tired but happy man returned home, this time with his arms full of a little red headed bundle with green eyes. Having the elves fix up the sleeping babe with a crib in the same room as Harrison's, the Potter's decided to retire for the day.

Time began to pass, with the Potter's and Blacks becoming more and more comfortable together, both heads of the family feeling the touch of excitement as they saw what seemed to be the profitable future of the families. The two Lords of the house with Charlus standing proxy for Harrison's seat on the Wizengamot began to make subtle changes for the benefit of all. They were able to pass small increases in standards of education that would make sure that the curriculum would be up to par for the children to be able to still improve in. With the tutors finally situated they had a loaded schedule that the children would begin at the age of four. While knowing that they were still kids and deserved to have a bit of a childhood intact, they made sure that every day gave the children a chance to play and on two weekends a month they would go on small outings that would allow them to have a chance to see more of what the wizarding world had to offer.

Until the age of seven, the children would focus on matters outside of magic. This included learning how to maintain proper decorum and more of the basics such as reading and writing. After the children had a strong grasp on those, they would begin their studies as future Lords and Ladies of Ancient and Most Noble houses and what those title represented including the duties that they would be responsible for upholding. They would learn that the Ancient and Most Noble title was only given to the very old and very rich families that were present for the founding of the current form of wizarding government. Dating all the way back to the time of the founders, each of these families had long histories and obscure family magics that set them apart from the rest of society. Against the wishes of some of the more previously outspoken members of some of house Black, they also learned the truth about the differences between blood statuses. The muggle borns were in fact very important to the future growth of the wizarding world and as a result would need to be retained if only for that effect. The purebloods were also important, because they provided a good amount of the financial backing of the world as well as keeping the traditions and family magics dating back to the origins of wizarding society itself.

The children became closer and closer and despite the occasional scuffle over not wanting to share a toy or one wanting it to be their turn to do something fun like ride the toy broom, they all got along very well. The adults kept a close eye on those already betrothed making sure that there weren't any problems developing that could cause longing lasting issues, but were pleased to note that if anything, they became each other's best friend. Finally the day came where the last of the group hit seven.

"Harrison, Lily, hurry up! We were ready to go ten minutes ago!" Came the voice of one Dorea Potter from down below.

Running out of his room, Harry looked across the hall to see if his sister in name, Lily, was finally ready. Noticing her door was still shut, he began rapidly banging on her door, "Let's go slow poke, I'm going to get as old as dad sitting here waiting on you!"

Suddenly the door jerkered open showing a very annoyed and irritated Lilly Bloodworth, "Harrison James Potter, what have I told you about rushing a lady?!-""What lady?" "You can't force us to hurry because we must look perfect for the day, especially since we are going to be in public!"

Slowly realizing what he said, Lily's face started to slowly match her hair more and more, "Why you!" Lunging for the black-haired menace, he quickly took off running down the steps to their waiting mother who had an amused look on her face. Seeing a possible means of protection, Harry hugged his mother and pleaded, "Save me mum! That menace is trying to kill me I tell you!"

As Lily caught up to him she declared not a little indignantly, "He was trying to hurry a lady, and not only that he then said I wasn't a lady!"

Turning to the darker haired child that was still clinging to her waist she raised an eyebrow, "Oh is she not a lady now Harrison? And what would dear Narcissa say about this? After all Lily here is her best friend."

As soon as he heard Harrison his pale face seemed to lose any color that it may have had, but as soon as he heard the name of his betrothed, he knew that he was in trouble. Seeing only one possible way to salvage the situation, knowing that James and Sirius weren't here to have his back, he ran over falling to his knees in front of Lily hugging her legs. "PLEASE! Have mercy! I will never insult your ladiness ever again!"

Rolling her eyes she remarked, "Get off me you big git! Mum please tell him to get off!"

"Come on Harry let Lily go, we need to get going if you are going to receive your wands."

"WANDS!" The children exclaimed forgetting about anything else.

Running towards the fire place they were almost bouncing around waiting for their mom to open the floo for them to the leaky cauldron. Once through they waved at Tom who was entertaining a few patron's with various stories at the bar, they quickly moved through the crowd to the back eager to get to the wand shop.

"Now children, you know that we will not be going to Olivander's today, as you know he won't make an untraced wand for children so instead we will be going to a little less known wand crafter that does what I would even consider to be better work. In fact he made my own wand. As she showed them the eleven inch spring black wand made of ebony with the core of a thestral hair. This proving to only emphasize the excitement of the children, she decided to hurry the rest of the shop. Coming up on the entrance, it looked to be almost nonexistent between some of the other shops in the alley. It was a nondescript wooden construct with fading paint leaving a sign with the barely legible words of Hillard's Wand Crafting.

Opening the door, Dorea ushered in the children and had them stand to the side as she fetched the owner of the shop. Waiting at the counter, she rang a bell causing the sound of scuffling and the dropping of what seemed to be boxes on the floor. With a muffled curse an old man with long grey hair tied in a long pony tail with horn-rimmed glasses shuffled around to the counter and peered closely at the beautiful black-haired woman in front of him, "If it isn't Dorea Black. Come back for a visit have ye'?"

Calling the children to her she replied, "Now Hillard, you know that it is Potter now, but I am actually here for my Children. Harrison and Lily. They will both be needed a wand today, untraceable of course and with a dragonskin holster that they can use when they get a bit older."

Looking a bit more closely at the children now he noticed that both had the same emerald green eyes. "Bloodworth you say? And Harrison here, is he not also one? They have the same eyes."

"Harrison is the future Lord Bloodworth, and Lily will be the Future Lady Potter. Now that is not the topic of business today, and you would do well to keep that information to yourself-""Of course!""- so if you would be so kind as to get to work on getting their wands" Dorea finished with a glare worthy of the Blacks.

"Very well, who shall we have first? How about you little lady? Just come over here and hold your hand over each of the woods until you feel a connection."

As he led her over the a variety of boxes of wood, Lily closed her eyes and began doing as told waiting only a few seconds over each type until she finally had a feeling of warmth creep up her arm. "This is it!"

Looking at the wood more closely, Hillard picked up the piece indicated and then led her over to different components for the core giving her the same instructions. As Lily began the process anew, she finally came to rest over one of the boxes. Grabbing the component, Hillard took them to the back of his shop and sat them on the table. Doing that, he went back into the main room of the store where the trio waited. Turning the red-haired girl he began to explain what he wand would be made of, "You picked willow which will give you good control over charms, not that it will bad for other specialties, it will just perform those even easier than most. Now the core is that of a phoenix. This will help you become more proficient over the greatest range of magic. That does not mean that you will instantly be proficient at a wide array of magic, but that your wand will be able through a lot of practice perform a wide array with relative ease." Facing the dark-haired green-eyed boy, he continued, "Now for you, let's see what wand will be your companion."

Struggling to contain his excitement, not wanting to embarrass his mother, he finally clamped down on his emotions and calmly walked over to the waiting boxes of woods. Following Lily's lead, he also closed his eyes as he ran his hand over the open containers hesitating slightly over each one, he continued until he found one. However, instead of feeling like he found the one, he felt as if he only had a half of the whole. Continuing along he finally found the other half to his whole. With a question on his tongue he looked at the wand crafter hoping to receive an answer. The wand crafter cut him off before the first word could leave his mouth and motioned for him to continue the process with the cores. With a more confident gait, knowing what it felt like to find the right item, he began the process of finding his core. This time, instead of finding what only felt like a half, he got the whole feeling on the item he came too.

Hillard repeating the previous steps of grabbing the materials and depositing them on his work bench before coming back started to explain the materials gathered by Harry, "I noticed the look of confusion on your face when you picked two woods, lad. Don't worry, even though it isn't common, it is not unheard of. The two woods that you picked will complement each other quite nicely. The first one is Aspen, this wood is good for dueling and performs quite spectacularly for charm work. The second wood that you chose is ebony like the wand in your mother's hand. Ebony is known for being well suited to combat magic and transfiguration. Both wands together tell me that you will be one that will fight for you beliefs and not back down from what you believe to be right or wrong. Now, the most interesting part of your wand however, is not the dual woods, but your wands core. Heartstring from a nundu, known as the most dangerous magical beast in the world. With breath of poison and the hide nigh impenetrable, it is a wonder that I was even able to even retrieve that particular material. In fact, if the nundu wasn't already dying from old age I highly doubt that I would have ever had one on my shelves. Well that is neither here or there as it has picked you to be its wielder. Just know, that you have the ability to be one of the greatest of them all or else that core would have not matched with you. Think about it, a nundu is a proud beast that knows it is at the top of the food chain. They are the epitome of danger in magical creatures, therefore you will need to strive to be the best at whatever you do in order to unlock the full potential that your wand will strive to provide. I know you can do it or else you would have never had that core chose you."

An hour later and two excited children holding onto their wands looking at them as if the Angels themselves came down to earth and handed them the most important artifacts in the world, the trio finally made their way home.

The years began to pass even faster with the children adding charms, transfiguration, defense against the dark arts, and potions to their already existing decorum and politics classes. The defense tutor wrote up a physical exercise load for them to follow making sure that the children not only grew magically and intellectually but also physically. With the promise that it would help in quidditch for the boys and that it would make all the other women envious of their looks for the girls, all of the children began to push themselves in their exercises with renewed vigor.

As time went on all the children began to advance in leaps and bounds with Sirius and James seemingly having a talent for transfiguration and Lily and Narcissa both being quite gifted in charms and potions, Harrison found himself excelling at the more casting based subjects like transfiguration, charms, and defense against the dark arts but he seemed to struggle a bit with potions. He found the constant need to keep an eye on a boiling cauldron making sure that he needed to stir every so often in addition to adding the odd ingredient quite a tedious and boring action. He much preferred doing the more active spell casting and was excitedly waiting for his tenth birthday when everyone would start receiving training in how to duel.

Eventually the day came where he turned ten and after the first of the long awaited dueling lesson, he went to his parents with a look of utter defeat. "Mum, dad, why can't I win at dueling! I mean, I do just as good if not better than everyone else at casting spells but when Mr. Thomas was showing me how to put that into dueling I just couldn't seem to get it to work right now matter what I tried!"

Sharing a glance at each other Dorea looked away from her husband back to the clearly distraught boy saying, "Honey, you can't always be the best at everything the first time you try. Sometimes you have to put a lot of time and effort into things before you get to where you can be at your best. Keep your head up sweetie and you will eventually get there. Always remember that your father and I are here for you and we have faith in you."

"But WHY! Why do I need to do this, maybe since I'm already good at the subjects, I will just not worry about dueling anymore. That way I can just be the best at those subjects."

Charlus decided that it was time for him to enter the conversation, "Dorea, I believe it is time to show Harrison the letter. He needs to know why it is so important that he excels at this."

With a sigh and a nod of defeat, Dorea moved to a lockbox and retrieved the letter found with the baby Harry all those years ago. "Harry, your father and I have told you that we adopted you when you were just a baby, this is what was found with you from your birth parents. Please try to understand that we weren't trying to keep this from you, we were merely waiting until it was the right time. It seems as if that time has come sooner than I had hoped. We love you Harry and no matter what we are here for you."

With that she handed the letter to Harry. As he began to read more and more, his features shifter between shock, sadness, and finally disbelief. Looking back up at his parents, the letter slipped between his fingers falling to the floor as he bolted out the door. The waiting parents could hear the door to his room slam shut in the distance, turning to her husband and wrapping him in an embrace, Dorea whispered, "I hope we did the right thing just then."

Tightening his grip on his wife, he whispered back, " Me too… me too."

 **A.N. As you can all probably tell I am not one for commenting on my chapters, but I wanted to give you all a glimpse into my thoughts as far as this story goes. For you avid fans that know the canonical family trees like the back of your hand, you will find that this currently fits in with what is already in place minus one big change. Narcissa is five years younger in my story than she was in canon. In addition to that, if you look at the Potter family tree, it mentions Charlus and Dorea having a son that remains unnamed, hence where Harry now fits in. Obviously there will only be more and more changes the more I progress, but I wanted to let you know that I was trying to get all past history as canonically correct as possible, I don't even want to change the families in the sacred 28 showing a couple families (i.e. Slytherin, Peverell, Gryfinndor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff) that are just as old and just as important, but neglected to be a part of the others. They were more self dependent. Another thing, Voldemort and people preparing for the use of _Avadra Kedravra_. If you think about it, there are wards and other abilities that could be used to block almost every spell out there, minus the big three that we know. Voldemort knows that those things exist, considering he is one of the more knowledgeable wizards out there as far as spells and wards are concerned, hence his use of the killing curse. So hopefully that answers any and most questions about that. As far as the blacks go, they have struck me as a family with an extreme importance on family. _Tourjous Pur_ or "Always Pure" seems to embody that because what is more pure than the bond between family, well I would like to believe that everyone would treat it importantly. In canon, I believe that they get away from that concept as you can see the fragmentation that the Blacks underwent due to multiple members making choices that literally tore the family apart. I don't want that to happen to them in my story hence their emphasis on the importance of family first, because once a Black always a Black. Last thing before I get back to writing, I am usually pretty busy during the weeks between my job and all the requirements that I have to be able to uphold for it. Due to this, I will primarily only be able to updates on weekends.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Days became weeks, weeks became months, the more time progressed the more worried the Mistress of the Potter house became. Deciding that he had enough, Charlus decided that he needed to confront his wife for fear that things would only continue to get worse if he didn't intervene. Finally catching her in private he began his plea, "Dorea, please you can't keep going on like this. Talk to me, tell me what I can do. It is tearing me up seeing you like this, all distant, and seemingly disconnected from life around you. I want my vibrant wife in which my entire world revolves back. Not this husk of the woman that I love so. So please, honey, talk to me."

As the last word left his lips, it was if it was the last bit of pressure that was needed to break the carefully constructed façade that she had worked for so long to perfect. Slowly sinking to the ground, sobs wracking her chest with greats heaves in between as her body struggled to maintain an adequate level of fresh air. Charlus rushed forward before her descent could come to a halt, catching and holding her tight to his chest. Whispering sweet words of love and comfort she calmed down enough to let out a hoarse whisper, "Harry, Charlus, I can't endure this version of him any longer. He has hardly looked, much less spoken to us since that night. It's like he has become a machine, getting up every day, pushing himself to the point of exhaustion, rinse and repeat. He has become more and more distant from James, Lily, and Sirius which I suppose is a little understandable, but even Narcissa can't seem to get to him. It has worried her so bad that she has even come to me for help, but the worst part is, I don't know what to do! I mean, we are basically the reason that he has become like this."

Once again breaking down in sobs, Charlus just readjusted his hold on her, rubbing slow circles on her back and just hoping to provide the physical comfort that his wife so desperately needed. Little did the couple know, the object of their worry heard the last part of the conversation as he was just around the corner when he heard the sobs coming from the only woman he had ever known as a mother. His thoughts a jumbled mess of emotion, one finally came to the forefront of his mind. He never wanted to hear his mum cry again, and knowing that he was the source behind the act was causing the wall of stubbornness that had been ruling his life to disintegrate. Deciding that he couldn't take it anymore, he ran over to his parents falling to his knees as he began to squeeze his mother for all he was worth. As his own tears began to fall as the emotions began to get the better of him he barely managed to get out, "I-I am s-so sorry mum." With the last syllable leaving his tongue, he fell into rivers of tears.

Letting go of her husband, she turned to her son and returned his embrace, telling him she loved him and that she was sorry for the news. Charlus decided to just hold them all together as he was waiting for everyone to collect themselves. Around ten minutes later all of the individuals finally composed themselves enough to continue the much needed conversation. Deciding that she needed to be the first to break the ice, Dorea started, "Harry, you know your father and I love you very much-""Yes mum, but...""-don't interrupt me for a bit please."

Nodding his head in agreement, she continued, "When you came to us, we had just gotten word that I would never be able to carry a child. As we were leaving, a nurse came to us telling us that a baby had been found with the name of Potter. Considering that they would be a part of our own family, we went to where you were and read that letter. Seeing that there was no family for you to be returned to, we decided that we would take you in and raise you to the best of our abilities as well as prepare you for the future. I want you to understand, we never wanted to keep this from you, but we wanted to tell you as soon as you would not only be able to understand it, but would possibly be able to handle it better emotionally. Maybe we should have waited longer, but when you came to us looking so downtrodden at your apparent first taste of failure, we felt that it was important for you to understand why we were doing what we were doing. Why we not only wanted you to do your best as parents tend to do, but why we wanted to push you to be the best of them all. This Lord Voldemort fellow that is supposed to be coming someday, is going to eventually try to come for you. Harry, you WILL NOT be alone, we will be there every step of the way. We are going to do our very best to continue making sure that you are as prepared as possible for that future confrontation, and when it does come, we and the rest of the family will be by your side to make sure that you come out on top at the end of it all. Even though you were not born to us, you are STILL our son, and no matter how much you may question that, you will always be our son."

Stunned into temporary silence as he listened to his mother's speech a thought finally came, "But what about James, Lily, and Sirius?!" he almost yelled. "What am I supposed to say to them? Oh hey there you two are actually my parents and you are my godfather? They would want to send me to St. Mungo's to get my mind checked!" He bit out.

Fixing Harry with a blank stare, he began to quiet down. "Now, if you are done yelling, we can continue." Harry had the decency to look ashamed. "You do not have to tell them if you wish. Or if you decide that you want to tell them, we can be there with you and confirm your story so that you will have more credence than they more give you before. Now, if you decide to go with the option of not telling them now, remember, Lily is a very intelligent girl, as intelligent as you are. It would not surprise me if she started to get a bit suspicious knowing that you both are parselmouths and that you are going to be Lord Bloodworth while that is in fact her current name."

As he pondered over what his mother said, he began to think about everything in the letter, the advice that they left him and some of their regrets, primarily his dad, which they had made. Finally coming to a conclusion, he looked back up at his parents, "Can we wait just a bit longer to tell them? I want to just try to process this a bit more."

"Yes dear that will be fine." Dorea replied with a hug.

Following that conversation, Harry began to revert more back to his lively self however, he kept the same intensity in his studies and dueling in particular. He decided that in order to honor his birth parents and the life that he could have had, as well as everything that his adopted parents had done for him, that he needed to become the best of the best. Seeing the positive shift in behavior from her betrothed, Narcissa sought out Dorea giving her a huge hug thanking her for bringing "her Harry back."

When September hit, the adults decided that the children needed to add occlumency to their daily repertoire of things to be done. The thought was that no child of an upstanding family needed to be in a position where they could accidentally share secrets of said families. The parents knowing that it would be hard for anyone too young to understand the concepts of such a difficult branch of magic, wanted to give them time to grow but also wanted to make sure they were ready for their first forays on their own into the magical world when they got to Hogwarts.

Samhain, Yule, and Easter came and went and the summer was quickly approaching. All of the children were beginning to become more and more excited as they begin to anticipate one of the few rites of passage that eleven year olds in magical Britain got to experience. Hogwarts Letters. After their busy days of schooling, all of which were working on third and fourth year material, they would sit around discussing what house that they thought that they would get in.

"I believe Slytherin will be my home there, Bella and Andy are both already there and they also think that I will follow in their steps," Narcissa spoke.

Sirius deciding that he didn't want to follow the rest of his family in the house of snakes declared that he would rather go into Gryffindor. James stating that his father and grandfather were both in Gryffindor so he would also try to go there with Sirius. The group turned to Lily looking expectantly, "What about you Lily? Any idea where you want to go?"

Thinking heavily on what each house represented, the two characteristics that stuck out to her the most were courageous and intellect. Both had good connotations that she hoped to be able to exemplify, but she couldn't seem to decide which one was more important. Deciding that they were equal in her eyes, she looked back at each of her friends, "I would be happy in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. I don't think Slytherin would be bad either as I like to believe I am ambitious, but I would say that intellect and courageousness seem to call to me more."

Hearing a chuckle from James and a "Miss Know-it-all" from Sirius, she sent them a withering glare silencing them both quickly. As Harry and Narcissa laughed at their apparent misfortune James and Sirius finally got them to quit and get back on the topic. Turning to her bethrothed with a quick smile Narcissa questioned, "And you Harry? What house do you think you will be in?"

Not even needing to think about it any longer since it had been plaguing his thoughts a few days prior, he returned the smile, "Slytherin. I wan't to be the best dualist out there and if that isn't ambitious I don't know what is. Not to mention, being a descendent of Salazar himself, I feel like that will feel like another home to me."

With an ominous smile Narcissa decided to mess with Harry, "Dearest betrothed, are you forgetting anything?"

Gulping quickly and slowly rubbing his hands together as he started wondering what he could have possibly forgotten when it clicked 'betrothed.' Losing any remaining color, he stammered out, "O-of course the b-best p-part is being with you!"

Beginning to lose her menacing smile as it transitioned to a more natural visage, she started laughing at his expense, patting him on his hand in a comforting manner she decided to let him off the hook, "Better, and don't you forget it."

With a breath of relief, Harry decided to endure the others fun at his expense and the occasional sniggers with James and Sirius trying to hide words of "Whipped" behind coughs. That is, until Lily decided to turn the tables on James and remind him that he was just as bad as Harry.

As the day progressed, they were finally called into the house where they saw their parents and Lord Black waiting. Deciding that they didn't need to delay any longer, Lord Black decided to begin the topic of conversation.

"Ahh, it is about time you all got in here. We have a very important announcement now that you are all turning eleven. Due to your impending birthdays, you will each be able to take on the heir rings of your respective houses due to the old laws. Now Narcissa and Lily, you both know that you will not be receiving inheritance rings. That being said, eleven is also the age that we can retrieve your respected betrothal rings. These are important as those rings usually have protections cast upon them to aid the wearer should someone try to cause them harm. Seeing that you all are almost ready to set upon the world without us to monitor your every steps, you will need to be able to protect yourselves from so of the more malicious things that people will occasionally try to do to heirs of ancient and most noble houses and their future brides. So these rings will be able to detect things such as if someone has tampered with your food or drink and can act as an emergency portkey that will get through all but the most secure wards, should you find yourself in danger. So when we go to Diagon Alley after Narcissa's birthday come August to retrieve your school supplies, we will also be going to Gringotts to claim your rings."

Realizing the seriousness of the topic, the children all straightened up and replied how they were expected, given their upbringing. The parents apparently pleased by the response, even Walburga surprisingly, decided that in order to dispel the atmosphere, it was time for dinner.

The day finally came, Narcissa's birthday was the day before which was celebrated in normal fashion. The child whose birthday it was got the day off from lessons, and after the other children finished theirs, they would clean up and head to respective home of the birthday child. After all the families appeared, they would have a grand feast in to honor the day for the specific person playing games together and generally enjoying each other's company. It was days like these that they all were able to drop their impassive masks that society required and simply be themselves.

Today however, was the day that all the children were able to go to Diagon Alley and begin the first steps into the rest of their lives.

 _Hog's Head_

In a dimly lit room in a dingy inn called the Hog's head, and old man with a long white beard with blue twinkling eyes wearing robes, which many may call queer, of swirling constellations. The man in question was the one and only Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was nursing a glass of firewhiskey mulling what he had just heard over and over in his mind hoping to gain some clarity with the strong drink.

 _Fate being challenged,_

 _A temporal rift,_

 _A Dark Lord worse than any before,_

 _Only the one of the storms fury may stand before him,_

 _Be wary for if not stopped,_

 _The world shall be plunged into a darkness never seen before._

Slamming the finished glass on the table, only one thought came to the aging man. 'I must find this rift, and prepare them to save us all.'

 **A.N. Sorry for the short chapter, I just felt the desire to write and wanted to do what I could. Expect more this weekend.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 _Uniform:_

 _Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

 _One Plain Pointed Hat (Black) for day wear_

 _One pair of Protective Gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

 _One Winter Cloak (Black, Silver fastenings)_

 _Please note that all student's cloths should carry name tags at all times_

 _Books:_

 _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk_

 _A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

 _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

 _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

 _Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

 _Herbology and its Effects on Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

 _The Essential Defense against the Dark Arts by Arsenius Jigger_

 _Other Equipment:_

 _1 Wand_

 _1 Cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

 _1 set of glass or crystal phials_

 _1 telescope_

 _1 set of brass scales_

 _Students may also bring an Owl, a Cat or a Toad_

 _PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

 _(HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRIZONER OF AZKABAN)_

Looking up from his list Harry realized that they already had everything ready to go except for a pet and their books, since their parents decided that they weren't going to worry about a second wand for now. Turning to Narcissa, James, Sirius and Lily, they had a quick discussion deciding that they would head to the Flourish and Blotts to pick up their books first, and then they would run by Eyelops Owl Emporium to see if any owl caught their eyes. So hurrying along, the group rushed into the bookshop, splitting up so that they could quickly round up all the appropriate books. Finding what they need, they took the load to Dorea who shrunk them down and sent them home with one of the house elves.

Looking forward to their own pets, they rushed over to the Owl Emporium. After looking for around a half hour, Narcissa found a beautiful Snowy Owl with the whitest plumage she had ever seen. Noticing the look of interest on the young girls face, the shopkeeper made his way over, "We just got her in from across the sea, United States to be exact. She is a beauty no?"

Barely managing a nod, not once tearing her eyes away from the amber orbs staring back at her, she slowly began to regain her senses. Turning to the waiting man, she said "Sir, I believe that I will be taking her, how much will she be?"

After a moment's consideration, "I will take ten galleons and throw in a few treats as well."

"It's a deal." Turning to the owl she continued, "Your name will be Asterion, how does that sound?" With a hoot of approval, Narcissa took her outside after paying before realizing her, telling her to meet her at home. With a flutter of wings, the white owl disappeared from the alley. No longer seeing her new companion, Narcissa reentered the store to find the others.

Shortly after, the party left the Emporium with Sirius finding a gray great horned owl and James leaving with a brown eagle owl. Harry and Lily left empty handed when they realized that none of the owls seemed to be just right to them. With the consolation that they could just use their intended's owls, they decided to try their hand at finding their own animals at O'Leary's Pet Emporium.

Entering the store, the children were met with a cacophony of different sounds. From the mewling of cats to the 'ribbitts' of frogs with the occasional exotic bird making weird chirping noises. Eyes wide at all the animals on display, Harry and Lily began to slowly making their way around until suddenly they both felt a feeling of warmth in their chests. With a quick glance at each other, noticing that they weren't alone in their feelings, they began to search in earnest. The feeling of warmth slowly began to spread throughout their bodies letting them know they were getting closer to their targets. Lily came to an abrupt stop in front of an enclosed cage, the lone occupant peered back with bright but intelligent yellow eyes. Standing up then slowly stretching out, the feline began to approach the auburn haired girl. Stopping at the edge of the cage, the cat watched the human almost as if it was expecting something. Reaching a hand through the metal bars, Lily finally began to stroke the black feline hearing the rumble of a purr. As soon as her hand connected with the animal, the feeling of warmth filled the rest of her being letting her know that she found her own "companion."

Ignorant to the events happening around him, Harry continued down the aisles, eyes barely registering what he was passing, so focused he was on his connection. Upon hearing the familiar sounds of what he had come to associate with snakes, his eyes narrowed in on the source of the talking. Seeing three glass containers, he headed towards them picking up on some of their conversations.

"Ooooohhhhh hearrr comessss another humannn."

"Ssseemmsssss tooo bee looking attt usssss like all the ressstt."

"Ssssshould we fake ssssleeeepp like we do for all the resssttt?"

"Yessss quick! Before he noticceessssss."

As snakes became motionless, Harry stopped in front of their cages. Raising an attitude at their poor attempt to fool them, he decided to play along with them. Speaking the serpents own tongue he began, "Oooohh how sssssoooo very disssapointing. Here I wassss hoping to maybe make sssome friends, and they are all asssleeep."

Hearing the two-legged being speak in their own language, all pretenses of being asleep were lost as the three shot up. "A SSSPEAAKERRR!"

Laughing at their antics, Harry decided to entertain them a little. "Yess I sssspeakk the noble language of the sssserpentsss. It wassss passed down through my family for many generationssss."

"Weeee have never met a ssssspeaker before," began the black krait snake.

"Whyyyy arree you here now, sssspeakerr?" the second, the bright green boomslang added.

"QUIET, youuu two. He issss here for me. Issssn't that right massster?" The third finished.

Looking more closely at the final snake Harry noticed it had a dark, "smoky' color with hypnotic colour-changing eyes. With a glance at the tag on the shelf under it, he saw that it was a venomous snake called a Nædre. Noticing that one of the defining characteristics of the snake was that their venom constantly changed its characteristics, making it extremely difficult to effectively treat its bite.

Turning back the waiting serpent, Harry felt the connection flare once again. Deciding that was the only confirmation that he needed, he picked up the cage containing the animal. With a "Bye Friendssss" from the Nædre, the snake and its new master met up with the rest of the group.

As soon as the others saw him Harry heard the voice of his mother, "Harrison James Potter, what on earth are you thinking bringing that snake?! You know they aren't allowed at Hogwarts!"

"But Mum, none of the other animals felt right to me! I felt a connection to Mara here as soon as I entered the store, and mother I couldn't just not get her now! Please, let me take her home at least, and we can figure something out for school. Please Mum!"

With a sigh of defeat, Dorea gave in, "Very well, just remember, she is your responsibility and as a result, you will be taking full care of her. With that they finished the rest of their purchases heading out of the store. The elderly woman taking a look at her charges decided that they would all go to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour for a snack while they waited on the Black and Potter Lords to joining them, after which they would go and finish their last order of business for the day, the trip to Gringotts.

 _Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office_

Feeling more stressed than he had in a long time, one Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk slowly nursing a glass of fire whiskey. With a sigh of defeat, he began to recollect everything that his search for this 'Chosen One' had led him to… Absolutely Nothing. Out of all of his numerous contacts, not a single one was aware of a single event that could allude to the location of the person, this 'temporal rift.'

With a pleading look at his phoenix familiar for some moral support, only receiving a soft trill in response, he decided that it was something that he would have to put on hold for now. As if he only just now realized how much paperwork that he had allowed to build up. So with one last gulp of the gut-warming liquid and one of his all-time favorite candies, a lemon drop, he began to tackle the documents, hoping to put some sort of dent into it before the day came to an end.

 _Meanwhile in Gringotts_

Harry looked around, always mildly awed by the apparent wealth on display by the goblins. As his party split to go to their respective family account managers, that left Harry with Charlus, Dorea, and Lily. Approaching the door to the Bloodworth account assistant manager Sharptooth, since Blackjaw was taking care of the Potter accounts with James, the four took a moment to collect themselves before knocking. Upon hearing "enter" their guide held the door for them as they walked into the office taking the proffered seats.

Looking down at the quartet in front of him from behind his slightly raised desk, Sharptooth began, "I would assume that you are here for the heir ring?" Upon a confirmatory nod from Charlus, he continued, "You will need to do a blood test, as policy demands."

Steeling his nerves, Harry approached the goblin holding the ritual knife and parchment. With a flick of the knife, he made a shallow incision. With the blood slowly starting to ooze out, he collected it on the blade of the knife while the ornamental tool rendered his flesh without blemish once again. Quickly, he stuck the tip onto the parchment allowing the blood colored letters to form. Knowing what to expect as far as his ancestry went, he handed the paper to his parents who after confirming nothing had changed, burnt the paper to a crisp. Lily observed what had just happened with a questioning look. Blatantly ignoring her stare, Harry asked the goblin, "Sir is there anything else that I need to do?"

"No, besides putting on the heir apparent ring you are done here." With this, he pulled out an ornate box from behind his desk with a beautiful motif of a dragon framed by what looked to be an ouroboros. Opening the lid, Harry could see a platinum ring with a ruby. On the ruby, he was able to see the same symbol of his house. Slowly reaching in to grasp the ring, he pulled it out and was able to inspect it closely. Previously unseen, he could now read what looked to be a motto, _ad meritum virtutis_ , 'Power Belongs to the Deserving.' Saying it out loud where the others could hear it, he slipped it onto his finger to where it resized itself instantly. Testing the phrase one more time he turned to see his mother staring at him intently, as if she was trying to convey a message. Thinking quickly he remembered their previous discussions about what he had to eventually do, and it clicked. With a short nod of understanding to his mother, he started to marvel at just how fitting his family motto was to what he was doing. He wasn't sitting around waiting for this eventual confrontation, no, he was not going to let anyone threaten him or his family if he could help it. He was going to do whatever it took to become strong enough to where nobody would ever be able to threaten everything that he held dear and get away with it. He was going to become more powerful than any other, and he was going to make sure that he deserved every bit of it.

With a thanks to Sharptooth for his time, the family requested to be taken to the Bloodworth vaults so that Harrison could get a betrothal ring for Narcissa.

Ten minutes later, they stood in front of a Large Obsidian door with the Bloodworth crest in a deep red decorating it's face. On the direction of their guide, Harry placed his hand against the middle of the emblem. Feeling a brief surge in his magic as he was recognized as being a part of the family, a seam in the middle seemed to slowly widen as the door split, opening outwards. With a quick look back towards his family, he quickly strode inside followed shortly by Lily. After entering the main chamber, the two came to an abrupt stop as the sheer amount of wealth that was present began to register. All around them were mountains of Galleons, with hills made of Sickles and smaller piles of Knuts. Barely able to peel their eyes away from the treasure, the children shared a quick glance before heading towards one of the connecting rooms where they caught a glimpse of some jewelry.

The room, about a quarter of the size of the previous, was lined with shelves and shelves of neatly placed jewelry. Under the shelves were a multitude of heavy oak trunks that seemed to be filled with even more bits of gold, silver, platinum, and any other combination of precious jewels. With Lily's help, he began the arduous process of finding the perfect ring for Narcissa. He hoped to find something that not only she would like, but would complement the person that she was. Elegant and classy but refraining from crossing over that boundary into gaudishness that many from wealth struggled to do. Slowly examining piece by piece, he found a piece of white and yellow gold that entwined to form a sort of cradle for a beautiful completely colorless diamond with strips of sapphire forming fingerlike tendrils to hold it in place. Despite being enamored by the piece of art in his hand, he knew that a second opinion was never bad thing, especially when trying to please a woman. Calling out to Lily, he asked her what her thoughts were.

Reaching out to take the ring from his hands, Lily had shocked look on her face, "Harry, Cissy will absolutely love this." Electing to let her finish before he remarked, Harry remained silent. "The colors, the cut, THIS DIAMOND... Harry this is perfect!" Happy with her approval, Harry sought to get the ring back. Right before she handed it to him, she jerked it back and fixed him with a hard stare. Beginning with a threatening tone, "Now I will assume that you have thought of an acceptable way to present this to her?" Upon seeing his face paling slightly and a nervous hand reaching up to rub the back of his head, she intensified her glare a bit more. "Harry…."

Not wanting to draw her ire any more than was necessary, he tried to appease her "Okay okay, I'll think of something. " When he noticed her start to relax, he allowed himself a couple more seconds before following her lead, he heard her mutter "you better" before she handed him the ring.

Realizing that they had been in the vault were quite a while and that Charlus and Dorea were still waiting on them, they rushed out to the couple before stating that they were ready to go. Upon reaching the lobby, a house elf popped in to inform them that the others had already went home and that they would all meet later for dinner. With a thanks from the family, the elf disappeared to whence he came. Deciding that they had no other business to attend to in the Alley, Charlus, Dorea, Harry, and Lily went home to get ready for the meeting with the others.

Upon reaching their home, Harry quickly dismissed himself before running up the stairs to his room. Throwing himself on his bed, he began to think of the best way to give Narcissa her ring. Knowing her, she would appreciate something refined and meaningful and would instantly turn her nose to anything too over the top. With a chuckle, he thought it quite fortuitous that neither James nor Sirius were her intended or else they would probably find themselves at the end of her wand more often than not. Pounding his brain for anything that would work, a smile began to slowly form on his face as he thought of the perfect thing to do. Happy with his decision, Harry decided to go see what all his family was doing and to possibly run his idea by his mum to see what she thought.

Later that evening, Harry felt his palms start to get a bit sweaty as the realization of what he was about to do set in. 'How will she react? Will she be disappointed that I didn't do something else? What if she decides that she doesn't even like the ring? I know mum liked the idea but maybe Cissa likes completely different things than I thought?' With these thoughts running through his head, another individual seemed to notice the subtle signs of distress that seemed to be plaguing the boy. Deciding to see if anything was wrong, Narcissa made her way over to her betrothed sitting next to him before turning to him. "Harry?"

Her voice sending a sudden shock through his system, his mind went into overdrive as the object of his worries addressed him he managed to stammer out, "Cissa!"

Frowning at the jump that Harry gave at her voice, she said "Is something the matter?"

"NO! No nothing at all, nothing is wrong. It's a nice morning isn't it?" Harry replied, too quickly, borderline panicking.

'What in the world has him all out of sorts? He never is like this, and nice morning? We just had dinner!' With that train of thought she observed the boy next to her further, hoping to discern the reason of his abnormal behavior. Suddenly a flash of insight came to her, 'If Sirius is right and James retrieved his ring today, maybe Harry also has. If that is the case, why has he not given me mine yet? I know James already gave Lily hers as she was overly eager to show me that rock on her hand. I wonder…' With a glint of mischief in her eyes, she decided to mess with Harry a bit more. Placing a hand on his arm she adopted a look of utter concern, "Oh dearest betrothed, please tell me." As he began stuttering a reply once more she continued, "I mean, you wouldn't be worried about anything would you? I mean you couldn't possibly be concerned about school could you? Of course not, well let's see, hmmm you did get your heir apparent ring today, are you worried about being the future lord of your house? No, no that doesn't fit either, you've known for a while about that, and you still have to wait before you have to worry about anything pertaining to it. Hmm, there isn't much else that I can think of…." With a predatory look on her face, she decided to go in for the kill, "unless of course, there was possibly another thing that you picked up while at Gringotts, a certain piece of metal if you will."

With his thoughts crashing down around him as he knew that Narcissa had figured him out, he let out a sigh of defeat. Looking her directly in the eye, he decided that he might as well get this over with. As he pulled a small box out of his pocket, he opened it presenting it to the girl in front of him, "Narcissa, I have been trying to figure out the best way to give this too you. I know that you would never want something ostentatious, so I thought that maybe me just telling you what I hope for the future someday for us." Mustering all the courage that he had, he continued, "I know we are young, and don't have to worry about getting married for a long time still, but I just want you to know that I will do my best to be everything that you could ever want in a husband. I want to be how my dad is with my mum, as in I want to do everything in my power to give you the world. I see them every day and even someone blind would be able to notice just how much they are in love. I hope that we can be the same someday. That I will be someone that you will always be happy with." As the last syllable left his mouth, he dropped his head down, refusing to look in her eyes at the possible disapproval from his intended. Instead of what he feared however, Narcissa did the unthinkable. She stood him up and hugged him for all she was worth whispering "thank you" over and over as she struggled to get carefully locked emotions back in check. After a few minutes and noticing that everyone else in the family seemed to be watching the two, they schooled their features and Harry slipped the ring onto her features. With smiles and polite clapping from the adults, the two children flushed crimson and excused themselves from the rest of the group stating excuses like needing to go to the library or to use the loo.

With a knowing smile to her husband, Dorea watched as her son and his future betrothed made their getaways. After they had exited the room, she looked at the rest of those assembled. Lily was showing off her ring to Narcissa's older sisters Bellatrix and Andromeda, James and Sirius were talking with Regulus, Sirius's little brother, no doubt about some new prank that they had in the works. On the other side of the room, she could see Fleamont and Arcturus in discussion about what seemed to be a new regulation that was being pushed in the wizengamot. Lastly she saw Orion, Walburga, Cygnus, and Druella talking to Euphemia. With a quick kiss to her cheek, Charlus left her to join Arcturus and Fleamont and she decided to go talk to her cousin, niece, nephew and sister-in-law.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A dark-haired, green-eyed boy woke up with a start. Quickly jumping out of bed, he cast a quick _tempus_. Despite only being five in the morning, he couldn't even bring himself to be upset because the day had finally came, the day that he would get to go to Hogwarts. Running through his morning ablutions, he began to double check all his belongings, making sure that everything that he could think of was packed and ready to go. After verifying that nothing was missing, he again checked the time, shoulders sagging in frustration as he noticed that only forty-five minutes had passed since he got up. Wandering around the house, he came upon the training room. Deciding that he might as well get some training in, he started running through all of the spells that he had learned so far. Having finished all the fourth year content a couple of days prior, he had a good arsenal of spells to run through. After his review, he began working on a few spell chains that his dueling instructor had told him were a vital part of any duelists strategy. After a couple of hours of nonstop casting, he was exhausted. Running up to rinse off the sweat that had built up, he noticed that the remainder occupants of the manor were beginning to stir.

Heading down the steps once again, he saw his parents and Lily waiting for him at the table with a breakfast spread already placed. Sitting down quickly, he noticed his parents acting a bit more subdued than normal. Deciding that the silence was becoming a bit awkward, he said "Soooo, good morning everyone!"

With a snort, Lily just shook her head at his antics before replying "good morning." His parents on the other hand mumbled a "morning" through strained smiles. Frowning at this response, Harry pressed on, "Is something wrong? Why are all of you being so quiet this morning?" Looking at his mother with meaningful eyes, she finally relented.

"Harry dear, your father and I are just going to miss you and Lily. I know you two are going off to Hogwarts just like we did, but the house is just going to feel so empty without you. You both just grew up too fast!"

"But mother! You know we are going to write you, and we will be home for breaks!"

"Yes, but there is a lot of time in between and we will just miss you."

Lily, having finished her food, decided to go and give Dorea and Charlus a hug, "You know Harry and I will never forget you. You're our parents after all! We will write you every day if you want us to and tell you about everything that happens at school. Oh, and don't worry, Narcissa and I will make sure that Harry here stays out of trouble." With that she sent a smug look at Harry who just pouted mumbling "I never get into trouble."

As they all finished up their food, they went and gathered their things together so that they would be ready to floo onto the platform.

The clock striking ten was their signal that it was time to get going, they didn't want to even be remotely late. Readying themselves, they sent their luggage ahead with the house elves, and stepped through the green flames one by one.

Harry's schooled features cracked a little as he eyed the crimson colored train that was waiting next to a teeming mass of witches and wizards. Everywhere he looked, he could see the farewells of parents to their sons and daughters, with the occasional younger sibling looking on in envy. With the first signs of homesickness starting to rear its head, he quickly drew his mother into a hug, basking in the feelings of comfort that she never failed to provide. After a moment, he also gave his father a quick hug before telling them that he was going to go drop of his bags and come back. Dragging his trunk along, thankful for the weightless charms, he weaved through the crowd. Finally making it to the waiting engine, he climbed aboard and found an empty compartment a few doors down. Placing his trunk on the rack, he made a mental note of where it was before heading back outside to his family. Catching sight of them standing next to the Blacks and the remaining Potters, he walked over to greet the rest. With quick hugs to his remaining family and a more formal greeting to the rest, he convened with the rest of his friends.

After a talking for a bit, they head the thirty minute whistle. Giving their families their last minute goodbyes and receiving reminders to keep up their advanced studies, they made their way to the compartment that Harry had saved earlier. Taking their seats, Narcissa Lily and Harry on one side, while James and Sirius sat on the other, they began discussing the upcoming year and what might happen.

"I heard McGonagall is a master at transfiguration, I can't wait to learn some more from her!" excaliamed James.

"Ohh maybe we can even convince her to become animagai!" Sirius continued.

With a snort Harry decided to put in his thoughts, "Why would we need her to teach us when we could just figure it out ourselves?" With thoughtful looks on their faces, Sirius and James nodded in agreement.

Giving James a hard stare, Lily said "James, you will not be trying that unsupervised. I do not want my fiancé getting stuck as a half man half animal simply because you three were trying to become an animagus without help." Before he could defend them Harry received a similar look from Narcissa before gulping and deciding to change the subject quickly.

Stating that they should play a game to help pass the time, they decided to pitch their skills against each other seeing who could do some of the most entertaining charms combinations or who could transfigure the most detailed item. As time went on, they started becoming bored with the competition and broke off into individual conversations with the occasional book being procured to read. Harry deciding to read a book over uses of transfiguration in dueling, he began thinking of a multitude of ways he could begin to implement this in his own style. He didn't want to ever become too reliant on one form of spell work and was hoping that by keeping himself balanced, that as he slowly began to master of the respective forms, that it would only make him an even stronger duelist.

Around an hour into this, they were interrupted by a woman pushing a trolley asking if they would like any candy. Each of them buying a couple licorice wands and chocolate frogs, they started eating their snacks around conversation. Eventually Narcissa turned to Harry, "So I know you probably won't be able to get as much practice dueling while we are at Hogwarts, but I wanted to let you know that I talked to Bella and she said that she would work with you if you are interested."

Looking at his fiancé in surprise that soon morphed into gratefulness, he replied with a quick hug, "Thank you so much Cissa that will be fantastic!" He was excited knowing that despite Bella being an accomplished duelist in her own right, she was also a seventh year and would be able to help him learn even more advanced stuff.

Smiling at his antics she returned to her book on charms, leaving Harry to dig back into his own book with a fervor.

A few hours later, it was decided that they should all get changed into their robes. Taking turns with the boys leaving the compartment to allow the girls to change and then vice versa, they just finished when the train began slowing down. Pulling into the station at Hogsmeade, they were told to leave their belonging on the train. Wands strapped in their wrist holsters, they made their way towards a giant of a man that was calling for all first years to come to him. Following the crowd, they gathered around the man waiting patiently for their next bit of instruction. After seeing that no first years were left, the man introduced himself as Hagrid, the groundskeeper and that they were to file into a group of boats.

Seeing that they weren't allowed any more than four to a boat, they boys decided to stick together and were joined by another named Remus Lupin. After seeing James and Sirius hitting things off well with the individual, Harry looked for the girls to see if they were alright. Seeing them joined by another boy with lanky black hair and a girl with blonde wavy hair, he returned his attention to the conversation that was in full force next to him.

After Harry introduced himself, Remus noticed the similarity that Harry and James seemed to have, "Are you two brothers?"

Barking a laugh, James replied "No we are cousins!"

Harry was a bit more hesitant, with the sudden thought of the letter running through his head, but recovered enough to nod his head in agreement. Shortly after they heard a "FORWARD!" from the large hairy man and the boats lurched into action. Grabbing the sides of the wooden craft for support the boys grew silent, watching their surroundings. Soon enough, a picturesque view of a large imposing castle came into sight. With the moon just starting to show next to one of the towers, they sight left many of the first-years mouths gaping in awe. Staring at the slowly growing image, they began to be able to make out some more of the features. The dark grey stone that appeared almost black in the ever fading light was built to create a multi-story behemoth on top of a hill. The multiple towers reaching even higher than the main portion of the building. As Harry analyzed the school, he noticed multiple battlements and walkways that he might eventually have to take in order to get from class to class. So caught up he was with his observations, he was brought back to reality as a lifted gait covered in moss obscured his vision followed by a ceiling of rock. Looking back around, he saw that the boats were docking at the base of some steps leading into the castle. Coming out of a set of doors, a severe, thin-lipped woman with her dark hair in a tight bun and a formal looking set of maroon robes looked at the gathered children.

"I am professor McGonagall, if you would follow me." With that she turned on her heel leading the nervous first years to rush to catch up. Finally coming into a large entrance hall that appeared to be as large as a small house, she turned back to the address the children. "When you enter these doors, you will be sorted into one of four houses; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Your house will be like your family while here. Your victories will reflect on your house, as will your defeats. Now then, check yourselves over while I go and see if we are ready to begin."

Disappearing behind another set of doors, Harry decided to look for Narcissa. Meeting her eyes, he made his way over to where she and Lily were waiting with the two that were in the boat with her. Upon reaching them, she introduced them to their companions, Severus Snape and Alice Fawley. After a polite introduction and small discussion about which houses they might end up in, the professor reentered the room gathering everyone's attention. Once it was clear that she the children were focused on her, she told them to follow her.

Entering the great hall, it was all that Harry could do to not restrain his head enough to not swivel around like many of the other first years. He knew that it was time for him to make sure that all of his training in both mannerisms and decorum to be in full force as here was the beginning of where he would make future alliances and get to know some of his possible enemies. He had to maintain a calm and collected façade at all times so that there would be even less weaknesses for anyone with ill intentions to be able to exploit. Using his peripherals to its greatest extent, he saw that the great hall was lined with four long tables, one for each house, with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff on his left, and Ravenclaw and Slytherin on his right. With a quick glance up, he marveled at the perfect illusion of the night sky, reflecting what he had just left. Remembering that it was supposedly enchanted by the founders himself, he briefly considered what all enchantments that they would have had to use in order to have it last as long as it apparently had.

As the formation came to a stop he looked at the head table. Seeing Dumbledore seated at what appeared to be a golden throne-like chair, he adverted his attention on a lone stool with an old patched hat atop of it. Professor McGonagall, after retrieving a scroll from what appeared to be her spot at the table, returned to stand by the stool. With a look from the woman at the hat, it's brim split as it broke into song.

" _Oh you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find_

 _A smarter hat than me._

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

 _And I can cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can't see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart;_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

 _And unafraid of toil;_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

 _if you've a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind;_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_

 _You'll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folks use any means_

 _To achieve their ends._

 _So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

 _And don't get in a flap!_

 _You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

 _(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)_

Upon completion of the song, the hat again became silent.

"As I call your name, you will come up here to where the hat will sort you into what will be your house for the next seven years." Unraveling the parchment in her hands she began with the first name on the list.

"Gregory Abbott" after a slight pause a loud "Hufflepuff!" came from the hat.

She continued down the list and then she came to the first of the group.

"Narcissa Black"

With a calm, cool countenance from hours upon hours of practice, she looked the part of a perfect pureblood image as she approached the stool. Upon reaching it, McGonagall placed the hat upon her head. "Ahh a Black, well you're intelligent there is no doubt about that. That being said, we know the only true place for someone like you… SLYTHERIN!" With the last part being said out loud, she daintily made her way to her new house, flashing Harry a small smile as she went.

"Sirius Black"

Sitting down, people could see what looked to be a conversation between the Black heir and the hat. After a couple of minutes everyone was surprised to hear, "GRYFFINDOR!" Instantly conversations spread like wildfire, "A Black in Gryffindor?" "There is no way!" "Has there even been one of them in the house of Lions?" Keeping his composure, Sirius made his way over to the house of lions taking a seat by the one other first year that had been sorted so far.

"Lily Bloodworth"

At the mention of the name, a few of the older purebloods sat a little straighter, shocked to hear the name of one of the old families that were assumed to have died out. Seeing her with the hat on her head, another longer discussion seemed to take place with the hat finally bellowing out another "Gryffindor!"

The names seemed to start slipping by for Harry, as he noted that the Lupin fellow that he had met earlier had also been sorted into Gryffindor. Eventually the moment he had been waiting for came.

"Harrison Potter-Bloodworth"

At the mention of his last name, the whispers began anew. Ignoring the conversations following in his wake, he merely gave McGonagall a quick thank you, accepting the hat from her and placing it on his head. Instantly, he felt the tendrils of a probe in his mind. Suddenly he heard, "If you would please lower your shields so that I can sort you appropriately." Feeling a little embarrassed he lowered his barriers. "Ahh much better. In case you were wondering, I was bound by the founders to keep any secrets that I may uncover to myself and nobody is able to force me into telling them. So you have nothing to worry about as far as concerned. Now let's give you a look shall we? Interesting, very interesting. So you're from the future eh? Not only that, but your parents are James and Lily Potter. How remarkable. Well I can see that you are loyal to your small group, so much that any Hufflepuff would be envious, but then again outside of that group you are quite indifferent. You have courage, knowing what you eventually have to do, you have not backed down yet, so Gryffindor would also have some merit. You are intelligent, most definitely so. Regardless of what house you end up in I feel like many a Ravenclaw will become envious at your intellect. That being said, there is one thing that stands out to me the most. You are ambitious, exceedingly so. You want to become a wizard that is able to overcome all others, an admirable goal if I do say so myself. You have the potential here to accomplish that task too and Slytherin would help push you to achieve that goal. Oh, and I almost didn't even need to look at the fact that, like your mother, you are also a parselmouth. Of course being a descendant of Salazar himself, that only makes sense. Well, unless you have any objection… no? Then you must be SLYTHERIN!"

The patiently waiting audience was startled by the sudden exclamation. After waiting almost ten minutes, they were beginning to wonder if something was wrong and causing things to take so long. As Harry took a seat next to Narcissa receiving a quick squeeze to his hand, their attention returned to the line.

"James Potter"

As the last member of the group approached, he quickly sat and after around a minute and a "Gryffindor!" from the hat, he made his way to sit by Sirius who gave him a clap on the back.

Losing much interest in the rest of the sorting, Harry vaguely noted Severus Snape taking a seat across from him as well as a few others that he didn't particular care to get to know quite yet. After the procession was finished, Dumbledore stood and with a clap declared "Tuck In." As soon as his hands met, a large feast appeared on the tables. There was such a large variety of foods that Harry was struggling to decide just what he wanted, but started piling food on his plate nonetheless. There were hams, turkeys, chickens, sausages, as well as a large variety of vegetables. Knowing that it wasn't exactly polite to talk around mouthfuls of food, he quickly ate and settled himself to look around a bit more while he waited for others to finish. Looking down the table, he could see Bellatrix pointedly ignoring a dark-haired guy around her age that seemed to constantly trying to get her attention. Harry chuckled to himself, 'It seems like some people fail to see the obvious." Continuing his observations, he saw Andromeda keeping quiet but sending subtle glances at the Hufflepuff table. Curious, he followed her gaze to a dirty blonde boy around her age that seemed to be returning her gaze albeit with a bit greater frequency. Making a mental note of that, he diverted his attention to his immediate surroundings seeing that most everyone else had finished. It appeared that they had twelve people sorted into Slytherin. Looking around the table, he recalled the names and matched them to the faces around him. Severus Snape, Cygnus Greengrass, Celeste Zabini, Alexus Carrow, Amycus Carrow, Corban Yaxley, Thadeous Nott, Christine Nott, Timothy Davis, Lissandra Avery and then there were of course Narcissa and himself.

Everyone began to grow quiet again as Dumbledore stood up and with a twinkle in his blue eyes said, "Ahh another year, you all have the chance to yet again rise up and become the best witches and wizards that you can be. New students, I welcome you and I hope that your new houses will be a home away from home for you. Now, I know you just ate and are tired from a day full of travel, so I will do my best to make these announcements quickly. First, Mr. Filch has reminded me to remind you that the updated list of banned items is posted on his door, so if you would, take a look at it. Second, this is a reminder that there is to be no dueling in the corridors. Next, remember that the Forbidden Forrest is exactly that, Forbidden! If you are caught wandering there, it could lead to disciplinary action not to exclude expulsion." Saying that, he gave a stern look towards the red and gold table at what appeared to be a set of twins who quickly looked around as if they were wondering who he could possibly be talking to. Continuing, "Lastly, I will leave you with these few words. Courage, Wit, Hard Work, and Cunning. Even though you may not in the primary house for these, never forget that an individual can exemplify any of these traits. Don't let your house confine you to only a few qualities as they are all worth having. Now, off you trot!"

With that, the tables stood as one as the professors left the hall. With the doors closing behind them, the older students began to make their way towards their respective dormitories. A couple of the prefects called for the first years, "First Years! First years, over here!" After they had gathered around, the platinum blonde haired male prefect introduced himself as Lucius Malfoy as his companion, a brunette beauty named Isabella Crouch, made herself known. Telling the group to follow them, they made their way to the dungeons and stopped in front of a nondescript wall across a portrait of a coiled snake. Looking over the first years, Lucius began, "This is the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories, you will not tell anyone else of the entrance nor the password to the dormitories." Receiving nods of affirmation from the eleven year olds, he gaze lingered on the blonde haired, blue eyed girl just long enough for Harry to feel like he should stand a little closer to Narcissa. Noticing the Potter-Bloodworth's movement, Lucius sneered before continuing, "The password is purity."

Upon the activation word, the wall parted allowing the group entrance into a cozy room of dark green, silver and black colors. Next to the fireplace were stylish black sofas and chairs. A couple of doors lead away from the common room with silver plaques that read dueling room and potions lab.

"As you can obviously see, we have a private potions lab for those looking to touch up on their skills. If you need help, ask an upper year. For any disputes that we may have, keep it in house. That is what the dueling room is for. We as Slytherin, should always present a united front in public. Failure to do so will be handled quickly and with little compassion to those that break the rule. Also, unlike all of the other houses, you will get your own room. Your room is plain and it is up to you to change it to suit your wants and needs. Now, Professor Slughorn, our head of house and potions professor, will be here shortly to give you the first year speech." With that Lucius turned on his heel after another glance at the young Black and walked into one of the hallways running towards the boy's dormitory.

Shortly after, the entrance opened and a portly man walked in. Seemingly excited at the prospect of new students he started speaking, "Oh it is always good getting new students! I am sure you will all do quite spectacularly, and I do look forward to having you in class. Now, as I am sure you have been told, there are a few rules for you to follow. First, since you are all new, I do not want you using the lab unless there is a student that is fifth year or higher there to help supervise. It is not that I don't trust in your ability, it is more that in case something does go wrong, they can help contain or prevent the situation from becoming worse. The second rule is, we shall have no bullying in this house. If you see it, report it to me so that I can handle it. The noble house of Slytherin should never have its members degrade itself to where it would occur and you will not be taking part of it. Lastly, if you have any problems, whether that is you struggling in a class or maybe you are simply homesick, please find me. I am more than willing to do whatever I can to help you out. If it is classwork, I will find a tutor to help aid you in the subject, if it is a matter of being homesick, I will do whatever I can to help you get through it. That being said, are there any questions?"

With a "No, professor" he passed them all a map with the instructions to look over it before bidding them a goodnight and leaving. With a look at each other, the group slowly began to disperse, going towards their respective dormitories. Before she could make it far, Harry made eye contact with Harry noticing that he wanted her to stay behind. With a subtle nod in conformation, she walked over to one of the corners. Upon Harry sitting opposite of her, she cast a privacy ward. "Harry, is something the matter?"

Noticing his sign of slight distress, she waited for him to speak. "Cissa, I want you to be careful around Malfoy."

That being one of the last things that she expected to hear, she could help but blurt, "But Harry, why?"

"He kept leering at you whenever you weren't looking. Not to mention I get a bad feeling from him being around you."

Studying her betrothed for a moment, Narcissa decided that she would heed his advice, at least until she had conclusive evidence that nothing was amiss. "Okay Harry, if you feel like it is necessary I will be cautious. That being said, you know I can take care of myself. Not to mention, if it is something I can't easily handle I can always come and get you!" With a smile at her antics, Harry seemed to relax a bit more.

"Thank you, and I know you can, I just can't help but worry. He is quite a bit older than us you know, and I don't know how good he is in a duel."

"And that's where Bella will help you out. Apparently she has been the dueling champion here the past three years, and is the favorite to win it again this year."

"Yea, you're right. Are you going to also get lessons from her? I don't want you being defenseless if I am for some reason not around to watch your back."

"Yep, I will be right there with you, every step of the way. James, Sirius, and Lily might also get to come every now and then. Bella said she found a room that will be perfect for all of us without interruption."

"Okay perfect." Harry said immensely relieved. Thinking about one of the interactions he noticed at the feast, he looked into the ocean blue eyes of the girl next to him. "Cissa, do you know if Andy is dating a Hufflepuff? I saw her and this Hufflepuff guy with dirty blonde hair constantly looking at each other, and thought that maybe there was something going on that I was unaware of."

Thinking about if her older sister had mentioned anything, she came up blank. "I don't honestly know Harry, but I think I will be looking into things and seeing if there is anything worth knowing."

"Sounds good. Well we better be getting off, especially if we want to set up our rooms before we have to go to bed. Oh and don't forget to set up wards."

With a quick hug and a goodnight, the couple split going down their respective halls to their rooms.

Seeing a door with his name on it, Harry took a breath before entering. Seeing that the words spoken earlier were true, he noted that there was a plain twin sized bed, a brown unassuming standing closet with a modest chest of drawers next to it. There was also a meager wooden desk with a chair across the room from the bed. At the back of the room was a door that he assumed led to a bathroom. Deciding that the current state of his room was not acceptable, he set to work. An hour later, and one would believe that it was an entirely different place. What was previously a small bed, that would hardly be considered comfortable at best, was now a soft queen size bed that had a black comforter spread across it with silver sheets. The once plain closet and chest of drawers, were now a smooth ornate black wood with what looked to be dragon heads adorning the feet and crest of the furniture. The chest, had silver clasps and handles that contrasted nicely with the new color. Looking at the desk, he decided to make it out of walnut so that it followed suite with the darker coloring of the rest of his room. Making the walls a gray and changing the floor to be a black marble tile with a blood red rug to keep his feet warm. Almost considering the room to be perfect, he decided that he needed to add one last touch. Looking at the wall, he concentrated waving his wand. Envisioning what he wanted to happen, he opened his eyes to look at his work. Seeing a Black Banner with a blood red Ouroboros surrounding a dragon, he smiled to himself. 'This is perfect' he thought before placing his wards and readying himself for bed. He finally lost himself to the pull of fatigue, falling asleep.

 **A.N. As you can see, I have had to slightly tweak a couple more characters ages in order to be a bit more compliant with the story. I hope that doesn't offend anyone and if it does, oh well. I hope you enjoy the updates, I won't promise another over this weekend, but I will put some effort towards it and we will see what happens. I hope you all are enjoying everything so far! Let me know your thoughts, I am constantly seeking to improve. So bring on the good and the bad!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The next morning seemed to come as soon as his eyes had shut. Blinking to away the remnants of the sleep, Harry began to get ready for his first day of class. Being a Thursday, it was going to be just a short intro to class and they would be more likely to do more meaningful things the following week. Despite that, Harry felt as if it was the perfect time for him to do some exploration of the castle and see what all he could find. He remembered his parents telling him that there are many secret passageways and rooms that most students never find. So he wanted to make a point of finding as many as he possibly could, after all you never know when they could come in handy.

Heading down to the common room, he saw the familiar sight of his waiting betrothed who seemed to be in conversation with Andromeda. With her back to him, he decided to see how long it would be until she recognized his presence. Unfortunately, her older sister ruined his surprise by calling out "Good morning Harrison!" Spinning around, blue eyes caught green as a small smile graced Narcissa's face.

"Good morning Harry. Andy here was just telling me that we should all go to breakfast together today."

With a glance at the older Black, receiving a nod of affirmation, he turned back to the blond haired girl. "Good morning Cissa, Andromeda. That sounds like a good idea to me, ready to go now?"

"Yep! Let's go!"

With that, the two younger children followed the older through the winding halls of the dungeon up to the Great Hall which already housed a small crowd. Finding their seats, they began to indulge themselves with the overabundance of food available. Upon finishing, Harry and Narcissa turned to Andromeda and began asking her about where they get their class schedules and other bits and pieces of information about the castle and things that they should look for. As the minutes passed, more and more students filed into the cavernous space with the intentions of grabbing a quick bite before class. The three Slytherins still deep in conversation didn't pay much attention to the others until they were interrupted by Professor Slughorn.

"Ahh here you go! First year schedules for you two and of course your schedule Miss Black. I hope you are ready for another fulfilling year of potions, I have some new potions that you all will be trying out."

Andromeda with her love of potions could hardly contain her excitement, "I can't wait professor! I have been practicing all summer on some improvements for some of the potions that we have already covered."

"I can't wait to see them! You never cease to impress me." Looking at the blond haired black, the portly man continued, "It will be interesting to see if you also have a talent with potions like your sister here, I look forward to having you in class. Now I better be off! I have several more schedules that need to be distributed, have a good first day of term you three." With Andromeda giving a faint blush at the praise, the professor ambled off stopping at the occasional student down the table.

Finally the end of the meal came, and with a short goodbye and goodluck, the two looked down at their schedules.

 _First year Schedule (Slytherin):_

 _7:00 am-9:30 am Breakfast_

 _9:30 am- 9:45 am Break_

 _9:45 am- 10:45 am Potions (MF), Defense Against the Dark Arts (T), Herbology (W), Charms (Th)_

 _10:45 am- 11:00 am Break (MTWTh), Potions (F)_

 _11:00 am- 12:00 pm History of Magic (M), Herbology (T), Transfiguration (W), Herbology (Th), Potions (F)_

 _12:00 pm-1:00 pm Lunch_

 _1:00 pm- 1:15pm Break_

 _1:15 pm- 2:15 pm Charms (MF), History of Magic (TW), Transfiguration (Th)_

 _2:15 pm-2:30 pm Break_

 _2:30 pm- 3:30 pm (MTWF) Defense Against the Dark Arts (M), Transfiguration (T), Charms (W), Break (F)_

 _2:30 pm- 3:15pm (Thursday) Defense Against the Dark Arts (Th)_

 _3:30 pm-6:00 pm (MTWF)_ _Break_

 _3:15 pm- 3:30 pm (Thursday) Flying_

 _6:00 pm- 8:00 pm Dinner_

 _12:00 am-1:00 am Bed (MTThF), Astronomy (W)_

 _(Found on Harry Potter Wikia)_

Sharing a glance, the two found the rest of their fellow first years that were being guided by one of the prefects towards their first class of charms. Considering they both considered the subject to be one of their best, they both were excited to see how the class went. Harry had heard that the professor, one Filius Flitwick was a dueling champion and was hoping to see if the diminutive man would possibly have some tip or tricks for him. Narcissa on the other hand, knew that she eventually wanted to attain a mastery in charms or potions, maybe both. She knew that if a renowned Charms Master like Professor Flitwick were to help guide her, that she would be able to accomplish her goal.

Entering the classroom, they found a couple of desk next to each other that were still open. Sitting down, Harry had Cygnus Greengrass to his right, while Narcissa had Celeste Zabini on her left. As they were getting settled, Harry noted that they shared the class with the Hufflepuffs, noting a boy he recognized during the sorting being named Gregory Abbott, and an Edgar Bones sitting next to each other. Finally his attention was drawn to the small professor making his way into the room with a flick of his wand shutting the door. As he took his position in from of the class, Harry chuckled to himself as the little man climbed up a small pile of books to be able to effectively see over his podium. After calling role, the class devolved into a lecture consisting of the course objectives and how it was to be a blended class of theory and lecture. Tuning out the squeaky voice, Harry began to formulate an idea of how he should approach Flitwick about dueling. Thinking that a practical demonstration of his talents may help sway the professor, he resolved himself to stay after class and approach the man.

Lost in thought as he was, he almost missed the bell signifying the end of class. After telling Narcissa that he wanted to speak to their teacher and her promising to wait on him, he approached the half-goblin when the class had emptied. Clearing his throat to catch his attention Harry began, "Excuse me professor, my name is Harrison Potter-Bloodworth, and I recognized that you were once a champion duelist."

"Yes Mr. Potter-Bloodworth, I was, how may I help you." Flitwick replied, fixing the young boy with an inquisitive stare.

Deciding that he should push on, Harry continued, "Well sir, I have been practicing on dueling myself a good amount, I was even considering joining some of the competitions over the summer to get even better. Sir, I was wondering if you could possibly give me a few tips and tricks to help me improve."

Deep in thought, Flitwick began to think about when he was still an active duelist, and about when he stopped to become a charms professor. He thought about how he had never really given much thought in taking a protégé of his own, and how it would probably be an interesting experience. Deciding that it wouldn't hurt anything to at least see if the boy had any potential, he said, "Mr. Potter-Bloodworth, come by my office Friday afternoon after your last class, and we will see if you even have what it takes to compete."

With the glint of a challenge in his eye, Harry replied, "I will be here."

Being dismissed, he hurried out of class to Narcissa and while they set off towards the greenhouse for Herbology he told her about his conversation with their professor.

"So he told me to come after classes tomorrow."

Feeling happy for her friend/fiancé, she replied, "That's great Harry, now you better be ready because I doubt that he does these things very often. You will want to make as good of an impression as possible."

"I know, hopefully the fact that I am ahead of everyone else will be enough of a motivator for him to help me out, or if I am really lucky, take me on as an apprentice of sorts!"

"Just don't forget about the practices with Bella and myself."

"I would never! Anyways, anything that he tells me I will make sure to tell you and the others."

Smiling in reply, Narcissa directed them around the last corner to the appropriate greenhouse for class. Coming across the waiting group of students, they noticed the red and gold of the lions. Finding James, Sirius, and Lily talking to the Lupin boy, Harry and Narcissa joined the group. With a quick greeting, they were cut off before any detailed conversation could commence by the wild, brunette haired woman known as Professor Pomona Sprout calling for them to enter. With the lesson following a similar trend to charms, the class seemed to drag slowly. Eventually it came to an end and the group plus Lupin hurried off to lunch. Deciding to sit together at the Slytherin table, they drew quite a few glances from the student population as a whole, with a few more sinister glares from some of the upper year Slytherins. One in particular from the dark haired boy that was constantly vying for Bellatrix's attention and the platinum blond haired Malfoy.

Ignoring the glares, the group continued to catch up on their mornings so far, with Harry informing them about his appointment with the Charms Professor, they all came to the conclusion that the only thing happening was just going to be more of the same introductions. With the addition of Bellatrix and Andromeda, that merely raised an eyebrow at the addition of the Gryffindors to the table. Entering the conversation, Bella and Harry began talking about some the finer aspect of dueling and how she expected him to be prepared for her to not taking it easy on him nor Narcissa for that matter.

Lunch eventually came to an end with the Slytherins heading to transfiguration with the Ravenclaws, and the Gryffindors heading to potions with the Hufflepuffs.

Entering the classroom, they took their seats noticing a black cat with white markings around the eyes, sitting on the desk watching the class. With a meaningful look from Narcissa with her looking hard at him then the cat, it finally clicked with Harry. 'That must be her animagus form!' Feeling a bit mischievous he decided that a harmless prank on their professor wouldn't hurt anything, not to mention that it would give him a small chance to show some of his talent to her. With Narcissa frowning a bit at what she was sure was going to be a disaster, she watched as Harry made his way towards the desk, the cat looking curiously at him the entire while. As he stood in front of the disguised professor, he picked up a block of wood that was on the desk and throwing a smirk at his betrothed, who almost started banging her head on her desk in exasperation, he transfigured the block into a mouse and began trying to convince the "cat" to eat it.

Jumping back, the cat transformed in mid-air to a glaring image of his professor. "Well I doubt it would be tasty anymore!" Harry quickly said before reverting the mouse back to wood and taking his seat.

With a quick "What were you thinking" from Narcissa, he watched as the Professor seemed to have to take a moment to collect herself. Finally she began, "Well, that is the first time that a student has noticed me for what I am. As you all saw class, transfiguration is a wonderful thing where only your imagination is your limit. That being said, it can also be very dangerous if not taken seriously and with a cautious hand. Therefore, there will be no tolerance for a lack of attention in my class, and if I see that you are messing around, you will be dismissed." Having the warning out of the way, she turned her desk into a large pot-bellied pig followed by a horse before putting it back to its original shape. After her display of some of the capabilities of the art, she laid out the rules for the class before releasing them early with their first bit of homework to read over the process of converting a match into a needle.

The final class, despite being with the Gryffindors again, had nothing of note besides the introduction to their professor, one Frederick Stone. A retired auror that had been teaching at Hogwarts for a couple years. So seeing that they only had flying left before they were free for the rest of the day, they hurried outside. Despite their love of flying, Harry, James, and Sirius faces dropped as soon as they saw the condition of the brooms that they were supposed to ride. "What have they done to these brooms?" James said in a voice signifying utter despair.

"Mate, you reckon they are even able to fly?" Sirius continued.

"I feel like we are just as likely for them to fall out of the sky as they are to hold us up, "agreed Harry.

With discontent written on their features, class began. To their surprise, the brooms were actually able to get off the ground, but outside of that, there wasn't much else that they were capable of. After the instructor, Madam Hooch, had taught everyone the basics of how to control the broom, they were finally released for the day.

The boys quickly decided that it was the perfect time to start exploring. With Narcissa and Lily saying that they were meeting up with some of the girls they had met, the three boys plus Remus set off to discover what secrets of the castle that they could.

After a short conversation, they decided that they would start at the bottom floor and work their way up. So heading down to the dungeons, they began going from classroom to classroom opening each door as they went to see if there was anything of interest. Seeing rooms full of desk and rooms full of old covered furniture, they continued searching until in one of the deeper parts of the castle opened into what looked to be a legitimate prison, with cages of steel and manacles still connected to the walls. Wondering if they were ever used, the boys voted against lingering and instead continued on their merry way. Finding their first secret passage, behind the illusion of a wall in between a couple of torches, Harry realized that it deposited them relatively close to where the Slytherin dormitories were. Checking the time, they saw that it was almost time for dinner, so deciding that they would explore more later, they went up to the hall to join the girls. Finding them sitting at the Gryffindor table this time, the four boys sat down telling the girls who were joined by Alice Fawley, the blonde girl that had sat with them in the boat.

Being as focused on the conversation as they all were, they were caught by surprise as the food disappeared signaling that it was time for them to leave. Deciding that there wasn't much else that they should do that day, they split ways with the intention of getting to know their fellow classmates a bit better. So with a farewell to the others, Narcissa and Harry began the trip down to the Slytherin Common room before being stopped by Bellatrix.

"First lesson is tonight. Meet me on the seventh floor in front of the tapestry of dancing trolls at 8:30 pm sharp. Don't be late." With a "we will be there", the two continued on their way. On their entrance to the dormitory, they noticed that their classmate were split into groups by gender. So splitting ways, Harry joined the boys while Narcissa entered the ring of gossiping girls, both blending seamlessly with the others.

Harry seemed to hit it off the best with Cygnus and Timothy, while noticing that Severus seemed to keep to himself a bit more than the rest. Deciding that he would work on bringing him out of his shell a bit, Harry decided that he would invite those three to join their group occasionally so that they could all get to know them even better. N

arcissa on the other hand, seemed to get along well with Celeste Zabini and Christine Nott. In no time at all, it was time for them to go, so catching each other's eye, they excused themselves and left the common room, heading up the stairs.

Finally reaching the seventh floor, they began their search for the earlier mentioned tapestry. Finding it, they cast a quick _tempus_ and noted that they still had ten more minutes until they were supposed to be there. Waiting for a moment, their eyes widened in surprise as a door began to materialize in the wall opposite them, opening to reveal one Bellatrix Black. "Well why are you just standing there? Hurry in before someone sees you!"

Hurrying to follow the command, they noticed a large room with a few dueling dummies set up in what appeared to be a dueling ring in the middle. Along the back wall were a few bookshelves lined with books. Upon closer inspection, Harry could see that they were all dueling related with sections on applying charms, transfiguration, dark arts, curses, and more in ones dueling style. With a look of wonder plastered on his face he turned to see Bellatrix standing in the middle of the room with her arms spread as if she was about to give a grand presentation. Clearing her voice, she announced in a stately voice, "I present to you the Room of Requirement!" Seeing that Harry and Narcissa were about to start with an endless amount of questions, she cut them off. "I was looking for a room to practice in, during my third year and happened across one of the house elves. After asking them if they knew anywhere, I was led here. The Room of Requirement does exactly what it says. It becomes whatever you require it to. So for now, it is a room for dueling, if I wanted, I could turn it into an obstacle course, or even a replica of our common room. I have yet to find something that it can't turn into."

"Enough of that though, we are here to duel. So we will start off with each of you dueling with me one on one and after that I will tell you some things to work on."

A couple hours later, a tired and sore Harry and Narcissa limped their way back down to the Slytherin common room followed by a cackling Bellatrix. "You two will get better eventually, you honestly didn't do too bad for your first time." She said, trying to help their egos just a little. With mere grunts of acknowledgement, the two eleven year olds, made their way into their rooms, hoping that a good night's rest would ease their pains.

The next morning had the two looking a little dead on their feet as they shuffled over to the Slytherin table for breakfast. Ignoring the questioning looks being sent their way, they gave a slight cringe at Bellatrix's smirk, as they tore into to the food. Finishing up, they felt a bit more life creep into their limbs as they regained a bit more energy. Looking at their schedule, they saw that it was going to be a double period of potions. Narcissa, was quite happy about it and Harry was simply hoping that since it was a longer period of instruction, he would finally get to do some practical work. So gathering their supplies, they stood with the rest of their peers as they headed down to the dungeon for class.

Arriving outside of the room, they could see that they were once again with the "Claws." Finally Professor Slughorn opened the door saying, "Come in, come in!" Quickly entering and finding their seats, with Harry and Narcissa partnering up yet again, Professor Slughorn began.

"Welcome to potions! I know many of you will be a little disappointed to know that wands don't have a huge place in the lab, but what many don't realize is that potions can even do things that wands can't do! With potions, you can ensnare someone senses, cheat death, and even give luck!" The more he spoke the more students began to become absorbed by his words. "So today since I have you for a while, we will first do a quick run through of what we will be doing this year, and then we will go over proper preparation and cleaning procedures that you will be following while we are in the lab. Lastly, I will demonstrate the proper techniques for slicing, dicing, and smashing materials."

Harry groaned a little drawing a quick glance from Narcissa. He was hoping to at least "brew" a potion. Thinking on it a little more, he supposed it could have been much worse, he could only be listening to the syllabus and course aims. Deciding that since his potions could still use some work, he tried his best to pay attention, hoping that some of the practices would transition to his own. Looking around after a few minutes, he noticed that Severus as bad as if not worse than Narcissa about being enraptured by the lesson. Based on that reaction, he assumed that Snape must be big on potions as well. After dicing up what felt like his one hundredth plant, Harry felt like throwing his knife, he started thinking that he might go insane if the class didn't any sooner. Fortunately for him, the bell rang shortly after. Rushing to clean up his station, he decided to cheat the process a little by using an _evenesco_ to vanish his plant pieces.

After a quick lunch, they headed to charms for their last lesson of the day. Harry was getting excited because after class he would get to meet with Professor Flitwick for his chance to prove himself. Entering the classroom, he saw large white feathers on top of every desk. Having an idea of what they were going to have to do, Harry assumed the same seat as before. With Flitwick entering the room, he instructed them to turn into their book to the levitation charm. Giving them a thirty minute lecture about how the spell works including him verifying that everyone was both doing the wand movements correctly and enunciating properly, he allowed everyone to practice with the promise of no homework for those that accomplish it.

With a look at Narcissa, smirking at the simplicity of the exercise for those as practice as them, he whispered to her, "Let's see if we can do it silently, first to do it has to buy the other a chocolate frog."

With a "You're on!" from Narcissa, they set to work. Little did they know a pair of eyes were watching them in interest. So focused they were on their miniature competition, they didn't notice that Cygnus and Celeste got their feathers up around ten minutes in earning ten points each for Slytherin, with a few Ravenclaws and Severus following shortly after. Around twenty minutes into the exercise, it finally happened. Harry, looked over at Narcissa with her feather hovering in the air shooting him a smug look. Deciding that he absolutely HAD to get it himself, he started back at it with renewed fervor. Five minutes later, he had his breakthrough. The sound of clapping broke his concentration.

"Bravo, bravo! You two did it silently did you not?" Came the accompanying voice to the clap from their professor. With a nod from the two children, he continued, "Well that is certainly much more difficult a task than most first years are able to get, twenty points to Slytherin each should be fitting!" Beaming at the praise, they went back to practicing their newfound ability. Not much later, the bell rang and with the class ending, so did the rest of their "work day." Sticking around after class for his meeting with the professor, Narcissa bid him farewell as she left with Celeste and Christine thinking that she would spend some time with them.

Waiting a few minutes, the rest of the students finally left, so Harry walked forward. "Professor I'm here as you requested."

Looking at the boy in front of him, Filius replied, "Yes, good. Congrats on your silent casting, that is very impressive for one your age. Now, getting to the point, I want you to cast every charm that you currently know."

Knowing that it would take a little while for him to show what he knew, he got to work. An hour later, he turned to the small man who seemed to be bouncing on his feet in excitement. "Mr. Potter-Bloodworth, that is quite a spread of spells for a first year, it looks as if you can efficiently do everything up to fourth year?" Following a "Yes sir" from Harry, the half goblin continued, "Now I want you to duel me so that I can get an estimation of about where your skills currently lie."

Sweat breaking out on his hands as the nerves associated with dueling champion began to get to him, he locked down on what occlumency barriers that he had, shutting down the unwanted behavior. Taking his place across the room, he took a bow. Coming up he had his wand held slightly to his side in his stance that he tended to favor. Looking at his opponent, he waited for the opening move, thinking that he would react. As the moments passed, Harry started getting a bit anxious, wondering why Flitwick had yet to move. Thinking that maybe the professor was waiting for him, he decided to take the initiative. Yelling _STUPIFY_ a jet of red light, raced across the room. As it was getting close to hitting the professor, he took a step to the side not even bothering to raise his wand. This small action only serving to enrage Harry a bit, the boy began to mix together a string of curses, charms, and jinxes hoping to maybe catch the little man off guard. Never once raising his wand, Flitwick continued dodging and weaving through the myriad of spells.

Coming to a pause, breathing a bit heavier than normal, Harry thought about the battle transfiguration book that he had read about on the train. Deciding that since nothing else had worked, he decided to give it a go. With a look of utmost concentration, he began transfiguring the surrounding desks into a variety of animals ranging from a wolves to birds, applying animation charms with the command to attack. Flitwick, finally showing a small amount of surprise, finally had to react outside of simply moving decided that he had seen enough to gauge the young man, cast a widespread immobilize, overpowering the animation charms on the transfigured animals, he quickly sent a trio of stunners towards Harry who barely raised a shield in time, shocked at the sudden change of pace. With a quick _Incarcerous_ followed by one of the simpler spell chains in his arsenal, the professor put an end to the duel looking at the unconscious figure of the first year. With a quick _enervate_ , he woke up Harry.

The dark haired boy, woke up with a groan. Hearing a chuckle, from the other occupant in the room, he suddenly remembered where he was. Sitting up his vision focused on the man in front of him. "Well Harry, you certainly are advanced for your age, but as I told you earlier, that was already evident by your display in class. That being said, I am highly impressed so far. Yesterday you asked if I could give you any tips and tricks for dueling correct?" Receiving a nod, the professor seemed to stop and think for a moment before coming to a decision. "I have a counter offer, how about instead of simply giving you advice I teach you."

As the words started to register, Harry couldn't stop his mouth from constantly opening and shutting, reminiscent of a fish. Finally he stammered out, "S-Sir are you serious? You will t-teach me how to duel?"

Laughing at the reaction, Flitwick said, "Yes, -Bloodworth, that is exactly what I am saying."

"YES!... Excuse me, I mean yes sir I would be honored."

"Great! Then from now on, we will meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, as soon as you finish class."

With a yes sir from Harry, Flitwick sent the excited boy on to dinner.

Walking faster than normal, Harry couldn't wait to tell his friends the news. He was actually going to be trained by a dueling champion! He figured that between his lessons with Professor Flitwick and his practices with Bellatrix, he could eventually become a duelist of note someday. Approaching the great hall, he took a deep breath and let it out trying to collect himself. Feeling a bit calmer, he entered and made his way to his friends that were gathered at the Ravenclaw table this time. Noticing that there were some new faces with the group, he sat down next to James and Sirius who introduced him to a Frank Longbottom and Marlene McKinnon from Gryffindor. Looking around he realized that Narcissa had apparently invited Celeste, Christine, Cygnus, Timothy, and even Severus. 'Our group is getting quite large,' he absently noted.

With the dinner coming to an end, he let the original five know that he wanted to talk to them a bit. Saying goodbye to their new friends, they left the Great Hall and found an abandoned classroom. Throwing a locking charm on the door and a couple of privacy wards, Harry turned to the waiting four. Still struggling to not let himself get carried away in excitement, he started, "Well you all know that I met with Professor Flitwick after class today right? Well I did, and I must have made a good impression after all because he offered me the opportunity to train under him!"

As they began to register his words, expressions of happiness, awe, and a little bit of jealousy flickered across their faces. "That is great Harry!" Lily exclaimed, giving him a congratulatory hug.

"That's spectacular mate!" "You will have to teach us what you learn!" Followed James and Sirius.

Narcissa just had a big smile on her face. "I knew you would do well! I'm happy for you Harry."

With a smile back at the blonde, the conversation degraded to theories as far as what all Flitwick might teach and if that also meant that Harry would be able to learn some new magic. Time seemed to slip away from the group and before they knew it, three hours had slipped by. Noticing how stiff he felt, Harry checked the time. "Hey everyone we have to go, it is almost curfew!"

Jumping up in surprise, the group collected their things and with a reminder from Lily to write home, Harry and Narcissa departed. Later on after doing some of his almost forgotten meditations to help with his occlumency, Harry went to sleep with a smile on his face, happy with the days events.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 _Location: Unknown_

In a dimly lit manor sat a brooding dark-haired pale man that would be considered quite handsome if it wasn't for the cold demeanor that surrounded him making him quite unapproachable. He sat on a chair, well maybe throne would be more accurate, that almost appeared to be made of solid darkness.

A soft-cold voice traveled across the room, "So the Bloodworth name did not die out like previously thought?"

"No, my lord, I believe that they somehow survived." Came a trembling voice.

"You believe?"

"Y-yes m-my lord."

With a hint of crimson in the man on the throne's eye, he took a moment to compose himself. "Very well, Abraxius. Please do an investigation and see where these supposed 'Bloodworth's' have been hiding all these years. They may be beneficial to the cause."

Recognizing a dismissal for himself, the blonde hair of Abraxius Malfoy flashed as he made his exit. He didn't know why, but the mere presence of the other man never failed to send chills down his spine. Nevertheless, he knew that the man would usher in a new age of greatness for the purebloods, making them the rulers of the world.

Back in the dark room, the mysterious individual was consumed by rage. 'How, HOW did they escape? The legacy of Slytherin is MINE!' He began to pace around the room, his mind racing through situation after situation, considering possibilities and actions as well as the reaction of others to every conceivable scenario. Finally, he came to a decision. 'If these rumors are confirmed, I will have to eliminate them. If they refute my claim as the heir to Slytherin, the purebloods won't be as easy to convince to follow me. It could create huge setbacks in the long run. Yes, if they dare to stand in my way, they will fall just like any other. For now, though, I will have to start increasing some of my efforts to find followers.'

With those thoughts, he strode quickly out of the room with one name at the forefront of his mind.

 _Hogwarts_

The weekend came and went with the friends spending the majority of it exploring the castle in depth. They found several odd rooms, one full of old furniture creating a maze through the stacks of forgotten pieces, another had old fraying posters full of various articles from past newspapers. The entire weekend might have progressed as such if it weren't for a letter from their parents with a reminder to not forget about the fifth year content that they were supposed to be self-studying. They were told that they would be getting tested by their tutors during the winter and summer breaks to make sure that the progression continued as planned. In addition to their progression in the core classes, minus herbology, they were supposed to be meditating nightly before going to bed with the intention to improve on their basic occlumency shields.

The following Monday came and with it the excitement of one Harrison James Potter-Bloodworth shot to irritating levels. Well, irritating for the feminine blond that was frequently at his side.

"Harry, if you don't calm down, I will hex you myself!" Narcissa said, clearly annoyed.

"I know I know, I trying I swear! It's just I can't wait! I am about to have my first lesson with a champion duelist!" Harry told her for what she swore was the fiftieth time today.

"Yes, yes you have told me fifty times today alone! AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED OUR CLASSES!"

Feeling a bit sheepish at the rebuke, he relented, "You're right I'm sorry. I'll try not to bother you too much more.

Following that conversation came what seemed to be the longest day of Harry's young life. He couldn't seem to stop fidgeting in class which in turn drew a few glares from his betrothed, not to mention a few questions of "Are you okay" from his professors. No matter what he did, the only thing that he seemed to be able to concentrate on was what all new magic that he would be taught.

After what felt like an eternity, the moment came. As soon as the bell for his last class of the day went off, he threw his belonging into his bag and rushed out of the room leaving Narcissa looking on at him in amusement. Approaching the charms professor's office, he slowed down trying to compose himself before knocking twice. Hearing a voice with the command to enter, he opened the door taking note of a quaint room with a bookshelf covering the far wall, and the small man sitting behind a large desk with a couple of chairs in front of it.

"Good afternoon, professor." Harry said politely.

"Ahh please, for these practices let's dispense with the formalities. Call me Filius please." Squeaked the duelist.

"Only if you call me Harry sir." Replied the boy.

"Very well Harry, well follow me."

Hopping down from his chair, he made his way around the desk and beckoned for Harry to follow him out of the classroom. After a few minutes of walking turning down a few hallways, he was led to an empty classroom that seemed to be completely emptied out of furniture except for a single board. Turning around and looking directly at Harry, Filius spoke, "So today, we will be seeing how well you are able to hold a shield and how well you are able to effectively dodge."

Hearing this, Harry has a flash of disappointment flicker across his face. Noticing the look, the professor began to chuckle, "Don't look so downtrodden, a strong defense is essential in a duel! You have to be able to know when to dodge a spell as well as when to shield. Think about your demonstration for me. I was able to conserve my magical strength by merely moving around the spell. Now, in order to be effective at this strategy, you will in fact need to be in good shape, but part of today is me getting the opportunity to see just where you are at in your magical strength and stamina."

After his speech he directed Harry to stand across the room and cast a standard shield charm. Here he would then cast a stream of spells progressively increasing in strength until the shield charm failed. As soon as Harry had his spell in place, Filius began.

Spell after spell came Harry's way with the colors initially fading out as soon as the hit his shield. Soon though, he was able to feel the spells more and more until it looked as if his barrier was starting to bend under the pressure. Eyes narrowing in concentration, he pushed everything he had into the spell that he had been holding for over ten minutes now, desperate to make it hold against the onslaught. Unfortunately for him, two minutes later it happened. His shield, being hit be a sky blue colored spell simply shattered, causing Harry to stumble back a few steps. Hands on his knees, he began taking deep breaths, his body catching up to the strain that it had been under.

A high-pitched voice belonging to the other occupant in the room broke interrupted his recovery, "Very impressive Harry! Most people would last at most five to seven minutes, with more of the above average at eight to ten tops. Now, let's see how well you're able to dodge."

Without any delay, stinging hexes shot out of the small man's wand at varying speeds and in seemingly random directions, never allowing Harry to predict the movements, simply react to them. In much less time than the other demonstration, he started getting peppered by stinging hexes until he fell down feeling as if he had just been ran over by a herd of hippogriffs.

"Well Harry, it seems like you have much to work on physically. You won't always be able to rely on magical strength and will lose often if you we don't bring you up to par physically. Therefore, I'm going to give you a list of exercises ranging from running to push-ups. All of these will help improve your overall strength, stamina and endurance." Conjuring a piece of parchment, Filius quickly scribbled a few lines and handed it over to Harry who picketed it. "That will be all for today, I will see you again on Wednesday."

Being dismissed, Harry slowly made his way down to the Great Hall to catch a bite to eat with his friends. Sitting down he was introduced to yet another that seemed to have joined the group, a Peter Pettigrew. Hardly registering what everyone else was saying, he ate in silence still trying to recover from his session of pain as he was considering it now. Then it hit him, Peter Pettigrew, the one that betrayed his parents! Eyes wide, he struggled to lock down his chaotic emotions. 'I can't just tell them to stay away from him, they don't yet know why!' Struggling to figure out what to do, he knew he needed to talk to his parents, soon. Finishing dinner, he followed the original crowd to the library to quickly finish the assigned homework and start on the advanced material.

The others, noticed that Harry was abnormally quiet, but wrote it off as him simply being tired from the lesson, that being further reinforced when he asked if they would like to join him for his morning workouts. Considering they didn't want to fall too far behind Harry, they agreed. After the homework was done, James, Sirius, Lily, and Narcissa were all for talking about their respective days and catching up. Harry on the other hand wasn't, quickly dismissing himself and rushing off towards the dungeons. Sharing a slightly confused look, the others went back to their conversations.

As soon as he made it back to his room, he began to write to his mother explaining the new individual that James, Sirius, and Lily had met and asking for some help and guidance as far as what to do about it. Thinking that he would have time to drop it off at the owlery and still make it back before curfew, he rushed out of the room. Passing an inquisitive Narcissa, barely blurting "Hey" he got to the top of the tower, tying the letter to one of the school owls before retracing his steps. Closing the door behind him right as the bell signifying curfew sounded, he paused to catch his breath, having ran nonstop to make it on time.

Thinking that all he had left to do for the day was to go to his room, meditate and then get some sleep, he began making his way through the common room. Suddenly, the feminine image of Narcissa blocked his path. With an eyebrow raised, she looked at his expectantly.

Confused as to what she wanted, Harry said, "Cissa?"

"Don't you 'Cissa' me, what is going on with you?" She snapped back.

Still lost as far as what she could mean, he replied, "What is going on with me, what do you mean by that?"

Fixing him with a glare causing him to slightly pale, she bit out, "You dismiss yourself from the rest of us by claiming that you are 'tired' next thing I know you are rushing past me in the hall only to return right before curfew. Don't even try giving me the 'It's nothing important' I know you too well to believe that line."

His mind started racing, 'What can I say? I can't just tell her the truth can I? But if I did, what would she think? Would she think less of me, or call me crazy? Maybe I should come up with something else, yea that may work.' Coming up with the only thing that came to mind, he said, "Well you see, I forgot that I had a book from the library that I forgot to return and I didn't want to get in trouble with Madam Pince."

Seeing her eyes narrow, he knew that he must have said the wrong thing. "You did not even have a book in your hands, stop lying to me Harrison."

Paling further, he couldn't believe his slip up. Before he could think of what to say he was cut off. "Harry, just tell me the truth, you know I will know if you aren't. So please just tell me."

Sighing in defeat, he noticed the attention they were receiving from the others in the room. Realizing that their current place wasn't the best for the looming conversation, he whispered to her, "Not here."

With a nod of understanding, she followed him to his room where he walked over to his desk. Opening one of the drawers, she looked on in confusion as he dug through a few documents, before finally pulling out an envelope. Walking over to where she waited, sitting on his bed, he handed her the papers. Holding the packet, she turned it over noticing his name _Harrison James Potter_. With a look at said boy seeing him looking everywhere but at her, she returned her attention to the task at hand. Pulling out the enclosed contents, she held in her hand what appeared to be a letter and to her shock, an inheritance test. Deciding that she wanted a few answers, she turned to Harry, "What is this?"

Still refusing to meet he gaze he replied, "Just read them please. You will understand after I think."

With that cryptic answer being her only thing to go off of, she opened the letter and began to read.

Next to her, the fidgeting boy waited as patiently as he could. He tried his hardest to calm himself, thinking that running through his meditation techniques. Focusing as hard as he was, he didn't notice as Narcissa moved from the letter to the heritage test results. Then he felt a hand on his arm. Looking up into the unreadable expression from the blond, he waited patiently for her to speak. After a few minutes, neither removing their eyes from the other, a soft voice was heard, "Harry, I don't exactly know how this is possible, but if these papers are to be believed, it is." Taking a deep gulp, she continued, "This does explain a lot though."

Surprised at that declaration, he made to speak but was cut off, "It makes sense in how you look so much like James and Lily. Everyone always says that you look so much alike that you could be brothers. Well besides the fact that your hair is a little less messy and the eyes, you with the same as Lily's with no glasses, and he with his hazel and glasses. But, you obviously knew about this before today, and even though they eventually need to be told I can understand why you haven't yet. So, what is wrong with you today?"

Retrieving the letter from her, he searched through it before pointing to the source of his thoughts. "Peter Pettigrew, what abou-"she broke off suddenly, eyes wide as the she connected the dots. "Harry, he was…"

"I know, and I don't know what to do about it."

Both grew silent in thought before Harry spoke again, "That is what you saw me doing right before curfew, I was sending a letter home to my mum asking her for advice."

Considering the situation, Narcissa replied, "So I take it you would be opposed to showing James and Lily this, at least for now?" Seeing the nod of agreement, she continued, "Well despite needing to do that eventually, they do deserve to know after all, I can understand why you wouldn't be looking forward to that. Now as far as Peter, maybe we could try to limit the amount of extra interaction that James and Lily have with him. As in, what if we set up times with our other friends but conveniently forget to let him know?"

"That may work, for now at least. I decided that I don't want to tell Lily until at maybe third year at the earliest and James probably fifth year or later. I'm a little worried that Lily may figure out something more later, especially when she realizes just how rare parseltongue is. So for now, this will have to work. Maybe we will get lucky and he will decide that he doesn't want to hang out with all of us anymore." Harry stated with a small amount of hope in his voice.

Deciding that it would be a good idea to be supportive of the hope, Narcissa patted him on the arm, "Maybe so Harry."

After a few more moments of silence with each being there to support the other, Narcissa got up dismissing herself so that she could go to bed.

The days started to go by faster and faster. After receiving the reply from his mum to just "keep an eye out" in regards to Pettigrew, he started becoming absorbed in his routine of wake up, meet with James, Sirius, Lily, and Narcissa and do the exercises prescribed by Flitwick. Following the exercises, he would shower and rush to breakfast before heading to class. At the end of his classes, he would go and train with Professor Flitwick on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and with Bellatrix on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Around his lessons, he would do his school work, both for his current year which was simply a review for him and for the fifth year courses. To finish off his days, he would eat and after his occlumency meditations, sleep, only to wake up and repeat the same routine the next day. His only breaks were on weekends, where he and the others would continue to explore the large castle, there were talks about eventually trying to create a map of the place. One where they could indicate all of the secret passageways that they found.

Following the same pattern week in and week out, he hardly noticed the months begin the slip by. Before he knew it, Winter break was here and he was riding the train back home. The months of working out and constant dueling practice had done wonders for him. He was displaying a nice physique compared to most others his age, with his arms showing some slight definition and the beginnings of the ever coveted six pack. His body wasn't the only thing that improved however. The five days a week of dueling older and formidable duelists, taught him quite a bit and Bellatrix theorized that he could easily hold up against anyone up to fourth year, maybe most fifth years. She figured that by the end of the school year, that he may be able to go against a good amount of sixth years and be able to come out on top.

True to his word, he made sure to work with the others, helping them on their own dueling. The practice and exercise with them allowed them to become formidable duelist in their own right. Now though, he had to mentally prepare himself for the looming exams that his tutors had set up. Not for the first time, he thanked Merlin that they only were studying ahead in charms, defense against the dark arts, transfiguration, and potions. He couldn't imagine having to add upper level ancient runes and arithmancy with his current schedule.

The train finally came to a stop, and after helping the ladies retrieve their trunks, they headed onto the platform to meet with their parents. After a few minutes, he found the smiling face of his parents. Almost losing all manner of decorum, he hurried over wrapping both of them in a tight hug. "I missed you." Came the muffled voice of Harry. Sharing a smile Charlus and Dorea replied, "We missed you too. Now come on, let's go home."

With a wave to James, Sirius, and Narcissa, they stepped through the platforms floo into the familiar sight of home. Rushing to their respective rooms to drop off their trunks, the two eleven year olds went back downstairs finding their parents in the sitting room. Making themselves comfortable Lily began talking about their classes and how she made friends with Alice Fawley and Marlene McKinnon. Dorea seemed happy with that saying that Alice's mother was a friend of hers, and the McKinnon's were a respectable family in their own right. She was also happy that Lily was getting along with Celeste Zabini and Christine Nott, which she supposed was due to Narcissa.

After Lily finished talking about some of the friend they had made and their classes, Harry told them a bit more about some of his closer male friends in Slytherin and about his dueling practices with Professor Flitwick. Coming to the part of the conversation that he had waited patiently for, Harry decided to ask the question that had been plaguing his mind for the past month, "Mum, Dad, would there be any way that I could compete in some dueling tournaments this summer? Bellatrix said she was probably going to do a few and even Flitwick thought it would be some good practice for me, please?"

Laying on the best puppy eyes that he could manage, he looked at his parents. Seeing nothing but blank faces before either of them, he started worrying that they would turn him down. Suddenly they both started laughing at him, causing him to frown in response. "Why are you laughing?"

Neither stopping to answer, they both continued their actions until they finally settled down enough to answer, "Your face son, was priceless." With a few more chuckles at his expense, Charlus said, "Yes, you may participate over the summer. We have actually been in contact ever since he took you on and since he feels as if you are ready, we agree that it will be good for you getting a feel for it."

Beaming in response, all the previous ribbing forgotten, he jumped up grabbing then in a hug and planting a few kisses to his mother's cheek, "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

Turning to Lily he said, "Can you believe it?! I get to do the tournaments!"

Laughing at how he was acting, she replied, "I can see that."

The rest of the break went by with much less excitement. They had their fifth year 'midterms' with the tutors, all feeling as if they went well considering their tutors didn't say otherwise. For Christmas, each celebrated at home with their immediate families with a large dinner at the Blacks house, as the elder Potters were having a ball for New Years. The dinner was a boisterous affair, with a large feast prepared by the elves. After the meal, the attendants split into two groups, the adults and the children. Bellatrix and Andromeda grudgingly joining the second crowd. Bella seemed to cheer up a bit hearing that Harry was going to be joining her in the tournaments over the summer. Unknown to the younger generation, the adult's conversation had grown much more serious.

"Bellatrix told me that she was approached by Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy. They apparently had someone that was hoping to meet her, this someone being a person that would 'lead the purebloods as their rightful place as rulers.'" Arcturus began. Giving Charlus and Dorea a pointed look, they began to pale as realization began to set in. Before they could express their opinions, they were interrupted by Walburga.

"She should meet the man of course, as should we! It sounds like he has the right idea, those filthy muggleborns are overrunning our world and the muggles should be made to bow at our feet." She said haughtily.

Sending her a look of scorn and disdain, Arcturus cut her off, "Be silent! This 'hero' of yours will only lead our family to ruin. I have been aware that this man was starting to rise for a while now, it was simply a matter of time until he made his presence known. Despite you being friends with the Lestranges and Malfoys, you should know well by now that both families are despicable excuses of wizards with no honor."

At this, Walburga began to look a bit indignant at being told off in such a way and appeared to be ready to explode before she was again cut off, this time by Dorea causing her to 'deflate', "What is the plan?"

Thinking for a moment, Arcturus replied, "We prepare, and we continue to train the children. After they finish with the seventh year content, they should be ready for us to begin teaching them some of the family magic. It would not do for them to be unprepared for any potential conflict that this man may cause."

The rest of the adults voicing their agreement, Walburga even consenting that the plan wouldn't be a bad thing, they turned their attentions towards happier events such as the upcoming ball.

The ball ended up being a grand affair where the Blacks and Potters introduced their children to many influential people in the wizarding world ranging from the Minister of Magic, Eugenia Jenkins, to author of a few of their textbooks, Mr. Arsenius Jigger. Despite being a little star struck by the high profile individuals that had made an appearance, they were still able to contain themselves enough to portray the perfectly behaved children that they had been trained to be. Between the introductions, the girls managed to drag their respective boys out onto the dancefloor for a couple dances, with Sirius being surprised and forced into a few dances with Celeste Zabini and a couple with Marlene McKinnon. Alice Fawley could be seen with Frank Longbottom, and a few of their other friends were also present. All in all it was an enjoyable night for everyone involved. Unfortunately all things must come to an end and with the night coming to a close, they all realized that they were going to have to head back to school soon.

Their last day of the break, everyone spent as much time with their respective families as possible. They were told that they should stay at school and use it to get further ahead in their studies during the spring break, therefore it would be several months before seeing their loved ones again. The only break that the children took from their parents was a half an hour to gather and pack their belongings so that they would be ready for the journey in the morning. Soon enough, it began to get late and with a hug and goodnight everyone set off for bed, both looking forward to and dreading having to go back. Excited to see the rest of their friends again and in Harry's case, the dueling practices, but dreading because they knew that they would miss their parent's terribly. With those last thoughts, their thoughts faded into blackness as sleep overtook them.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Harry woke up to constant poking and a squeaky but demanding voice, "Young Master, you be needing to get up! Yous gots to get ready to go to school!"

With a groan, the black-haired youth rolled over, pulling his pillow on top of his head. "Five more minutes!" came his muffled plea. Unfortunately for him, Sally was not dissuaded.

"No, yous be needing to get up now or Mistress be getting you."

Almost as if he was shocked by electricity, he jumped out of bed almost knocking the poor elf onto the ground. "I'm up! I'm up! Please don't get mum!"

Giving him her best version of a glare, Sally harrumphed before popping away. Allowing a sigh of relief to escape his lips at the almost disaster that he had luckily avoided, Harry decided that it may be for the best to go ahead and get ready. Around twenty minutes later, he went down the stairs for a quick bite before they had to leave. Getting down there, he noticed that everyone else had finished, leaving him to eat by himself. So without further ado, he dug in. Just as he was finishing, he noticed the dark hair of his father walking into the room. "Son, your mother sent me to fetch you, it's about time to get going."

Wiping his mouth with his napkin, he set his utensils down and got up,"Alright dad, just give me a minute to go grab my stuff and I will meet you all by the fireplace."

Five minutes later, found the family of four in front of the ornate fireplace. A moment later Harry was stepping through the green flames to the familiar sight of a teeming mass of witches and wizards with a steam engine in the background. Quickly moving to the side to prevent a collision with his parents, he started to look around for some of the faces of his friends. Seeing none, he turned to Lily who was conversing with Dorea. "Mum, I don't see anyone so I suppose I am going to go ahead and board the train, maybe they have a compartment already."

Studying the features of her son, it was a moment before she walked over and gave him a hug before replying, "Okay sweetie, be safe, be good, do your best in your studies and in your practices. Oh and I want to know about all of your adventures so don't forget to write. I love you Harry."

"I will and love you too mum." With one last hug and a kiss on the top of his head from his mother, Harry left Lily to say her own goodbyes, grabbing his belongings and making his way through the crowd to the train. Hopping up the short steps to get on board, he began glancing in each of the rooms that he passed, hoping to see a familiar face amongst the population. He had made it through three different carts of the train before striking gold. Slowly opening the door, he had hoped to catch the occupants off guard. He was almost in position before a voice suddenly sounded behind him, causing him to jump up and whirl around while subsequently tripping over his trunk at his feet. As he looked up, he noticed he couldn't see anything due to some type of fabric. Reaching up he grabbed ahold of it before freezing at the feminine voice, "Harrison James Potter, get your hands off my skirt this instant!"

His hands were like lightning as he let it go and before he could move any further, the fabric was quickly moved to the side revealing the cold face of Narcissa. Jumping up in a flash, he began stammering out an apology while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "C-Cissa, I-I'm sorry I d-didn't mean to!"

Content to make him squirm a bit longer, Narcissa maintained her look, that is, until the sounds of chuckling from the other occupants broke through the silence. "Did you see his face Sirius?!" exclaimed James, finally deteriorating into loud guffaws at Harry's expense.

Like James, Sirius was equally affected by the events but managed to reply, "IT WAS PRICELESS!" Before dissolving back into fits of laughter.

Harry, having initially forgotten about the two due his awkward situation, spun around with his fist clenched exclaiming, "Cut it out you two!" The only response being the two stopping a moment to look at him, then look at each other before continuing their previous action.

It was to this scene that Lily walked in on. James and Sirius laughing with Harry glaring at them while standing in the middle of the compartment. Across from the boys was Narcissa struggling to contain her own amusement at the situation. "What in the world is going on?" Lily questioned.

That simple comment seemed to be the last straw for Narcissa, as she also broke down into giggles. Harry hearing now everyone laughing at his expense, sat down next to Narcissa by the window and began sulking. James took a breather long enough to catch Lily up to speed. Following his explanation, she also joined the other three in their extreme amusement causing Harry to pout even more.

After a few minutes Narcissa started to feel a little bad for her intended so in between giggles she said, "Okay, okay, we should leave him alone before he refuses to speak to us for a month." Slowly calming down, they finally began a long discussion on what places they still had yet to explore in the castle. Creating a game plan for where they were going to be looking next, they then started playing a few games like exploding snap and gobstones to help pass the time. Eventually they heard the warning that they were only ten minutes away from Hogsmeade, so they split up to quickly get their robes on.

After making it to the station, they exited the train and boarded carriages that seemed to be pulled by nothing taking them to Hogwarts. Following a nice return feast, the group had just enough time to say hello to their other friends before getting whisked away to their respective dormitories by their fellow housemates. Upon returning to the dungeons, Harry and Narcissa split ways after a "goodnight" both planning on getting some sleep after the long day.

The next morning, Harry woke up early ready to get started on his exercises. He refused to allow himself to slack on something that would only help him out with his dueling. In his mind, he had worked hard to get to where he was and the last thing that he wanted to do was to revert back to where he started. So, throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, Harry headed down to the common room where he was intercepted by a blonde haired blue eyed girl.

"You didn't honestly think that you would be going by yourself did you?" Asked Narcissa.

Feeling a bit ashamed because that was exactly what he was thinking, he just replied, "Sorry, I guess I thought you would have maybe forgotten."

Her gaze softening a little, she approached him putting a hand on his arm, "Harry, I told you that I would be here with you. Just because we had a little break doesn't mean that I would forget all about it."

Feeling a bit ashamed at not having more faith in his friends, he decided that there was only thing to be done at this point. So with a mumbled apology, he gestured the blonde to follow him. Exiting the common room, they made their way towards the Room of Requirement in which they transformed into a large room with a few padded squares of flooring in the middle creating a track of sorts encircling it. Deciding that if the others were going to come, they could catch up on their own. Therefore, the two Slytherins began their pre-workout stretches. Finishing them, they began running around the makeshift track, on their seventh lap they noticed the door open and close admitting three dragging Gryffindors. Ignoring the new additions, Harry and Narcissa continued their laps knowing that they weren't even halfway done. Eventually, they finally finished their thirtieth lap and made their way towards the center of the room where a pitcher of water with a few glasses waited on a table.

Making sure to not gulp it down too quickly, the two sipped on the provided beverage until they both finished their first glass. By that time, they had caught their breath enough to start the next phase of their workout, meaning push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, and a variety of other workouts designed to target the other areas of their bodies previously unworked. As the two continued their routine, the other three eventually caught up and after drinking their own glasses, began the long string of exercises.

An hour later, the five children could be seen sprawled out on the padded flooring struggling to catch their breaths. After a few minutes of nothing but heavy breathing, Lily was the first to stir, "We really need to stretch or we are going to be hurting pretty bad later."

With only grunts in reply, the group staggered to their feet to begin the final part of their routines. Several minutes of stretching later, everyone dispersed to take showers before rushing to make it to breakfast on time.

They all met back up at the Hufflepuff table where, instead of engaging in conversation, they each began piling food on their plate and scarfing it down as quickly as they could. Before they could finish, the food disappeared from their plates signifying the end of the breakfast period. With quick farewells, they separated for their first class of the day.

Harry was having a rough time paying attention to his professors and if it wasn't for Narcissa providing a sharp poke in the side every time he dozed off, he was sure that he would have fallen asleep in at least one of them. He blamed his poor attention on not being back in the school spirit and hoped that he would be back to normal in a few days. Despite his struggle, he was happy when the last class finally ended. Jumping up he bid Narcissa farewell as he rushed to his first dueling lesson with professor Flitwick for the semester, eager to see what all he would be learning today.

Entering the classroom, he was greeted by the lack of his instructor. Deciding to make himself comfortable, he took out a sheet of parchment and after folding it into a structure resembling a bird, cast an animation charm on it causing it to fly around the room. Thinking of ways to make it more entertaining, he created different colored rings at various points around the room. Taking out another piece of parchment and folding it similar to the first, he decided to see how quickly he could levitate it around the room through the rings. So enraptured by the task he set upon himself, he failed to notice another individual slip into the room.

After watching the boy for a few minutes, the figure cleared his voice startling him. "Harry, that it's quite impressive, as well as good for control, however, if you would like, let's duel."

Quickly recovering from the disruption, Harry moved to the other side of the room. Watching Filius cast the protective spells around the room that would help minimize the damage that their battle could create, Harry began thinking on everything that he had so far learned. He considered some of the different charms that he had learned as well as the defense spells that he knew and how he could combine them with his transfiguration. Considering the fact that some spells had more reflective tendencies, he began to compose a plan that may actually catch his mentor off guard.

Filius gave the signal to begin, a conjured timer counting down from three. Hitting one, Harry began his assault, throwing a quick trio of stunners with were easily dodged. Dodging some of the return fire, he then threw a few more spells this time with three of the five on target while two went to the side. The small man shielded the three ignoring the other two, and began one of his simpler spell chains which included a couple stunners, a binding hex and a disarming charm. Harry shielding the stunners, and barely dodged the bind and _expelliarmus_ , deciding that he couldn't keep up too much longer, he put the second part of his plan into action.

Throwing his longest string of spells yet, a flurry of colors headed towards the champion duelist. Filius, surprised at the speed and intensity of his protégés wand work, shielded the majority and dodged the remaining few. Unknown to him, he fell right into Harry's plan. Looking towards his young adversary, he was about to cast the last few spells to finish off the duel, he suddenly felt a sensation of magic behind him. Spinning around faster than Harry thought possible, Flitwick barely raised a shield just in time to block Harry's spell. Harry was momentarily stunned at the reaction speed of the master and before he could collect himself, found his world going dark.

The next moment, Harry opened his eyes, his vision blocked by his professor that was chuckling at his expense. "Well Harry, you almost had me! That was quite ingenious, the transfigured mirror with the impervious charm on it causing the stunner to be deflected, simply brilliant!"

Sitting up, Harry flushed at the praise, knowing that Flitwick would not do so if he didn't feel like the action was worthy of praise. Before he could say anything in response, the professor continued, "You have truly improved, and if you continue at this rate, you will be a formidable duelist yet!"

Remaining silent for a few more moments to make sure his teacher didn't have anything else to add Harry responded, "Thank you sir, I thought I had you for a moment. Sir, how did you know that the spell was behind you? Oh, and how did you move so fast? I don't think I have ever seen someone do something like that before."

With a smile on his face, Flitwick replied, "Well Harry, you almost did have me, however, to answer your question, the more you are around magic and the more you get used to dueling, the more of a feel you get for it. That means, if you continue to practice heavily and continue be around magic at work, you will begin to be able to feel the magic around you. For instance, if I were to constantly throw stunners at you over and over, eventually, you would be able to get used to how that spell feels and you would be able to know without looking what it was simply due to its aura. Now by being around magic constantly, allows you to feel spells in general around you. So you might not know exactly what spell is coming at you, but you will at least know that something is in fact coming. As far as moving as quickly as I did, I don't go full speed with you, however that is something that I did have to go full speed for in order to block. Don't worry, the more you practice and the more you work out, the faster you will eventually get. I have full confidence that you will be able to match my speed someday if not surpass me. That last spell chain that you did was proof enough of that. Now, that is all for us today, go get you some food and rest and I will see you in class later."

With a quick goodbye, Harry left to go get a bite before making his way to the library with his friends to study. After a couple of hours, they finished and bidding his friends goodnight, Harry went to sleep.

The routine began anew, with Harry waking up and meeting Narcissa, James, Sirius, and Lily to work out in the room of requirement. Then he would go to classes, following classes, he had dueling practices and then homework. Following this routine, the first month was done and with February came Valentine's Day.

Harry knew that he didn't have to do anything, he still thought that Narcissa would like it if he got her something. So after asking Bellatrix during one of their practices if she knew where the kitchens were, he headed down towards a portrait of a bowl of fruit. Tickling the pear as Bella instructed, he entered a large room full of pots, pans and stoves with a multitude of house elves running back and forth chopping vegetables or seasoning meats. Suddenly one of the long eared beings popped in front of him. "What can Mosey be doing for yous sir?"

"Well, I was hoping that with Valentine's Day coming up you could do me a favor." Harry replied.

"What do yous be needin?"

Harry hesitated, trying to figure out if it was something that he really though she would like or not, "Could you make sure to have some chocolate mousse in front of Narcissa Black during dinner on that day? It is her favorite and I was wanting to do something nice for her."

Nodding it's head almost looking like one of the "bobble head" toys that Harry had heard about, Mosey said, "I be making it happen sir!"

"Thank you" said Harry before turning around and exiting the room.

A few days passed and with them came the fourteenth. Waking up, Harry ran down the steps where he saw Celeste Zabini pacing. Seeing him, she fixed him with a glare, "What took you so long! I've been waiting forever it seems, and you know she gets up early!"

Cutting her off before she could get on too much of a rant, Harry said "I know, I'm sorry. I didn't know if you would be down here quite yet…" Noticing her glare intensify a bit he continued hoping that she would just listen, "Anyways, here is the flower and note. Thank you again for helping me out." Saying that, he handed her a white rose and a folded piece of parchment before scrambling back up to his room.

Shaking her head and mumbling about 'stupid boys making a lady wait' Celeste went back up to the girls dormitory before slipping into Narcissa's room and placing the items on her pillow next to the still sleeping girl. Slipping out quietly, taking great care to not accidentally wake up the blonde, she hurried back to her room hoping to catch a few more hours of sleep.

A couple of hours later, Narcissa woke up ready to meet Harry for the normal workout. Rolling over, she came face to face with a flower and a folded note. With a slight smile on her face, she picked up the rose breathing in the scent that she loved so much before setting it aside and reading the note.

 _Dear Cissa,_

 _I just wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's Day, and I hope you have the best of days because you deserve it._

 _Love,_

 _Harry_

As she read the short note, the smile eventually developed into a large grin as her romantic side was touched by the sweet gesture. Deciding to hurry and get ready, she made her way to the common room and upon seeing her intended, walked over to him and gave him a tight hug, 'Thank you so much Harry, it really means a lot."

Returning the hug with a big smile, he was doing a silent victory dance in his head, proud that he did the right thing after all. Letting the moment last for a little while, he finally broke it off, knowing that he needed to get going. Reaching the room, they saw the Gryffindor trio waiting for them. Instantly, Narcissa rushed to Lily and began exchanging hushed whispers. Lily's face went from excited to contemplating before resting on an evil innocence that Harry recognized all too well. Nervous that he may be the target of the trap, he edged his way over to the edge of the room thinking that if he started running now he could escape. As he kept his cautious gaze on her, he noticed that she started making her way towards James, who was oblivious due to him talking to Sirius.

"Oh Jjaammmessss." The red haired witch began.

Hearing his name drawn out, James instantly paled recognizing the overly sweet tone. "Umm, y-yes L-Lily?" he managed to stammer out.

Like a shark going for blood, Lily's smile seemed to become even more sinister, "So James, Harry here got Narcissa a flower for Valentine's Day and gave her a sweet note. So what did YOU get ME?"

If it was possible, it appeared that James paled even further, as he was thinking hard as to how he could escape her wrath. "Umm, w-well you see, I uhh, I wanted to wait and give it to you at the right time!" he exclaimed, gaining more confidence with each word.

Harry noticed Sirius giving the other Potter and incredulous look. He assumed that James actually didn't have anything planned. Chuckling to himself at his friend's unfortunate situation, he resumed his run.

The rest of the day passed without much else happening apart from James hastily put together picnic for Lily in the room of requirement and Narcissa gifting Harry with another smile and hug upong seeing the bowl of mousse in front of her at dinner.

Months began to slip by yet again with nothing to break the monotony of their schedules until one day in May, Harry was running late to his dueling practice with Bellatrix, who he was finally beginning to get closer to getting a win over. Well, he almost found something tricky enough to catch her off guard, he still couldn't match her in a straight up one on one and she figured it would take him a few years before he could. After all, she was six years his senior, and a talented duelist in her own right.

After dropping his books off in his room, he began rushing through the dungeons to a secret passageway that would allow him to skip a few floors and make it to the Room of Requirement faster, as he was running past abandoned classrooms, he almost missed the sound of a crash. Coming to a halt, he made his way back to where he heard the disturbance and upon finding the door, stuck his ear up to it in order to see if he could hear anything else. Only hearing muffled voices, and the sound of a bit more scuffling, he cast a disillusionment charm over himself and an unlocking charm on the door. Slowly cracking it open, he slipped inside the room, closing the door back behind him. Turning to observe what he walked in on, he noticed the dark haired, feminine form of Bellatrix pushed up against the wall being held there by one Rodolphus Lestrange. Watching the event, twirling Bella's wand in his hand was Rabastan Lestrange.

Seeing that he was still unnoticed and unsure of what to do, Harry decided that he should watch and wait to see what was going on. He then heard Rodolphus declare in a threatening tone of voice, "You dare refuse to join the Heir of Slytherin in his noble quest? You dare refuse me? Don't worry, if you won't willingly join us, we have our ways to guarantee your allegiance!"

Whipping out his wand, the older Lestrange began to intone," _Imper-"_

Before he could finish, Harry had already whipped out his wand and sent a silent stunner into his back, knocking him out cold. Instantly becoming alert at the sudden condition of his brother, Rabastan quickly grabbed Bellatrix and held her wand up to her throat saying, "Show yourself, or else she will pay the price."

Harry, knowing that he was caught in a bind of sorts, didn't know what to do. On one hand, he could remain disillusioned and possibly sneak around to get a clear shot on the younger Lestrange. The problem with that being, Bellatrix could be seriously hurt if Rabastan went through with his threat. On the other side, he could reveal himself which could possibly end up with him having to duel the older male. Deciding to take Bella on her word that he could probably handle most in the school in a duel outside of the experienced sixth and seventh years, he removed the spell hiding his presence.

Instantly, Rabastan sneered at the first year that was holding his wand towards him in a threatening manner. "What do you think you are going to do, little Potter? You think you actually pose a threat to me?! HA, okay, you know what, I will entertain you. Let's see what you can do."

Pushing Bellatrix aside, he threw a stunner in her back before throwing her wand on top of her, pulling out his own. "Now it is just you and I. You have nobody to save you now!"

Harry's hand began to sweat before he clamped down on his emotions with his occlumency. He knew that if he started to overthink or allow his nerves to get to him that he was destined to lose. Quickly taking in the classroom, he began thinking about what all he could possibly use to his advantage in the looming fight. Before he could finish developing a full strategy, his thoughts were interrupted, "What's taking you so long? Are you scared? Are you ready to toss your wand aside and give up? I may go easy on you if you surrender, maybe."

Declining to respond, Harry decided that he should try to get the jump on the arrogant upper year throwing the simple chain that Flitwick taught him. As the multiple lights of the stunners and binding spells careened towards Rabastan, the older one threw up a shield that easily blocked the first two spells before cracking under the third. The fourth broke his shield causing him to stumble back from the force. Blinking away the surprise that such a young kid could actually carry a little bit of a punch, he decided to make the annoying brat regret his decision. Throwing a few dark curses at Harry, some designed to break a few bones and others designed to cut a target making him have a difficult time healing them.

Upon recognizing some of the darker spells, Harry's eyes widened in disbelief at the fact that Rabastan would actually resort to such spells. The only reason he even knew of them was because his tutors wanted to make sure that he would be able to counter the spells. Gritting his teeth in determination, he decided that he had to end this quick before some worse things could be used to hurt either him or even Bellatrix who wasn't completely out of the line of fire. Deciding that maybe the trick used against professor Flitwick could be useful, he began another spell chain with the intentional misses going to either side of his opponent. Knowing that he could rely solely on his rebounding spells, he also transfigured a few desks into rats that began to swarm towards the older boy.

After burning the rat army that was quickly approaching him with an overpowered _incendio_ , Rabastan failed to notice the two spells that went to either side of him before he felt ropes wrapping him up and his wand flying out of his hand. Unable to comprehend what had just happened, he looked at the younger male that was slowly approaching him, the boy's wand fixed directly at his head.

As Harry approached the bound assailant, he thought about questioning him to see what was going on until he realized that Bellatrix was still unconscious. So, sending a stunner into Rabastan's chest at point blank range, he walked over to the downed woman before casting a _renovate_ on her. When she came to, she scrambled frantically for her wand. Upon grabbing it she whipped around pointing it at Harry. Noticing who it was, she quickly lowered it mumbling an apology.

Harry decided that he should probably ask what exactly was happening and decided to ask Bella, "So you want to tell me what that was all about?"

Almost as if she was shocked by such a question, Bella seemed to be taken back until she collected herself. "Harry, they were trying to do some bad things, and when I refused to join them, well they weren't too happy about it as you could see."

Unhappy with the vague explanation, Harry decided to let it rest for now and maybe try again later. He knew that whatever was going on would definitely not had ended well for Bellatrix, after all Rodolphus was in the middle of casting an unforgiveable. Bellatrix decided that they should probably get going to report the situation to a professor. Before leaving she walked over and as hard as she could kicked them in places that made Harry cringe inside despite not being on the receiving end. He only hoped that he never upset a woman enough to where they would do the same to him.

As they approached Professor Slughorn's office, Bellatrix and Harry entered after knocking. Seeing his two student's and noting their expressions, the portly man quickly grew serious. Before Harry could say anything, Bellatrix quickly approached their Head of House and whispered something inaudible to Harry. Seeing the professor pale significantly, he knew that whatever she said was not going to be good. Before he could say anything, Slughorn said,"Mr. Potter-Bloodworth, I know you were present for the events, but since Ms. Black was also present, she can tell me what happened, so you are dismissed. I may retrieve you later if I need anything."

"But Professor-"

"No, please go ahead and take your leave."

Seeing no way out Harry exited the office, making his way back to the common room to see if Narcissa was there. As soon as the door closed behind the first year, Bellatrix broke down into tears. "I'm so sorry professor, I didn't take them seriously when they cornered me and because of it…"

She broke off seemingly unable to continue. Still in shock from just what some of his students were about to do to another, the Professor Slughorn decided that right now, he needed to comfort one of his top students. So making his way around the desk he gave the sobbing girl a hug and pat on the back with soft assurances that it will all be okay. After she collected herself once again, he went back behind his desk. "Ms. Black, I can't fathom what would have happened if young Mr. Potter-Bloodworth had not shown up. I can however, assure you that I will be taking this situation with the upmost amount of seriousness and they will be punished harshly. Possibly expelled if I can do anything about it. I will also be informing your family, they deserve to know what almost happened to one of their own."

Not able to summon any words, Bellatrix merely nodded her agreement before getting up and leaving the room. As she left, the professor slumped over with his head in his hands as he began thinking about how far some people can go. How evil those people can be. With these thoughts circling through his head, he sent a missive to Dumbledore to meet him at the classroom where the Lestrange brothers were still unconscious.

A few days later, the news got out that the Lestrange brothers were expelled, despite the fuss that their father was making in regards to it. As the days continued, Harry noticed that Bellatrix seemed to be constantly looking around as if she was expecting someone to try and jump her while she was not looking. She was also pushing him even more in their dueling practices, and when he questioned her about it, she simply responded with "It's for your own good."

With the fatigue from his practices causing him to go find sleep as soon as his studying finished every day, the rest of the semester flew by. Then, before he knew it, they were on board the Hogwarts' Express heading home. With thoughts of what he would be doing over the summer with Bellatrix in the dueling tournaments, Harry was lost in his thoughts and before he knew it, it seemed like they were pulling into the station at Platform nine and three quarters. With a breath to collect himself, he gathered his belongings and departed the train, ready to see his parents and begin the break.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Master Harry, Master Harry, Lord Black be requesting you in his study!" came the voice of Kreacher interrupting Harrison's reading of a new dueling manual that was discussing some of the pros and cons of shielding versus dodging and how to improve the combination of both.

With a sigh the dark-haired youth shut the book and stood nodding his confirmation to the house elf. As he made his way through the Black house he noticed Sirius also leaving his room, locking eyes he realized that the summons was for both of them. With a nod he followed the Black heir the rest of the way to the patriarch's study. Upon arriving they knocked and waited for the muffled "enter" signifying them to enter.

Opening the heavy oak door, they were introduced to the sight of a bookshelf covering the wall behind a large, heavy mahogany desk. On the sides, were a couple of portraits of previous Lord Blacks staring imperiously down at the two. Behind the desk in a large comfortable looking chair sat the current head of the Blacks, staring intently at a handful of documents. Waiting a few more moments, the older man motioned for them to take a seat in the two chairs in front of the desk. With a quick glance at each other, they hurried to obey.

Finally, Arcturus shuffled the papers together and stacked them neatly on the side of his desk. Looking up he stared at the two boys in front of him. "Do you know why you are here?"

The boys shook their head in the negative. Taking a breath as if to collect himself, he continued, "You are here because our family has been slighted. I can see that you seem to be confused. Maybe you Harrison, should have a better idea. Does the name of Lestrange ring any bells?"

At this everything clicked for Harry, and a look of determination replaced the confusion he felt before. With a nod to the Black Lord of affirmation, he resolved himself to pay close attention to what he had to say about it.

"For you Sirius, since it doesn't seem to be clicking quite yet, we will be getting revenge for how your cousin Bellatrix was treated by those scum. Tell me Harry, what do you feel would be an adequate punishment for them?"

Considering the issue and what could have happened, Harry took his time to respond, "Well, considering that they didn't accomplish anything, I think we could capture them and imprison them for a couple days at least."

With a nod the older man turned to Sirius, "And you Sirius, what do you think?"

"Well, maybe we could take them in and rough them up a bit with the warning to never cross us again," the black haired youth replied.

"I can see that we have a ways to go with both of you. Maybe if you had combined both of your ideas would it possibly be acceptable but individually, it isn't even close to being enough. Now what we are going to do however should give you more of an idea for how we blacks handle those who slight us." Saying this, he sat back in his chair with his hands clasped on his desk. Noting with some amusement that the two were on the edge of their seat in anticipation, he decided to go ahead and indulge them.

"We will be ruining them financially." Both boys about fell off their seat as they both sat up straight in what was bordering on disappointment.

"Financially?" Sirius questioned.

"Yes, financially. Think about it boys, we have to show them where the power lies. If they neglect to respect their betters, they will pay for their mistake. Now, if they had succeeded in the rest of their endeavor with Bella, it would be much worse. In other words, if they had finished the job so to speak, the Lestrange name would no longer exist." He finished with a snarl.

"But, Lord Black, how do we plan on doing that exactly?" Harrison managed to get out.

With a chuckle, he replied, "Well let's just say, it pays to have some things that you're able to hold over the goblins, not to mention some material on some of the higher ranking ministry employees. Now you boys will have the opportunity to see this first hand. This will only prepare you for the future when you are the heads of your respective families. Through your marriage Harry, you will be part of the Blacks, and I know Sirius that as much as you wish it wasn't so sometimes, the title will pass to you. It will be up to you to effectively run the family and not allowing someone else to push you around. Now, you may both go back to what you were doing."

With the dismissal, they both stood and began to make their way out of the room, before Arcturus' voice reached them, "Oh and Harry, I expect a good showing in this upcoming tournament. Maybe Sirius here will decide to take something serious for once and enter next year."

After that, the boys separated deep in thought about what was going to happen, and considering what exactly they would have to eventually face as head of their families.

A few days later Harry was at home heading towards the manors dueling room for a little more practice before he left the next day with Bellatrix for his first tournament. He was starting to feel a bit nervous for his debut. So he figured that by practicing some more spell chains and focusing on a little silent casting, that it would help take his mind off of things. He finally conned Lily into coming and giving him an opponent. Well, as much as an opponent that refused to actually duel and would only help if she was the one throwing them without receiving any sort of retaliation. So in other words, he got plenty of practice working on his dodging and shielding. Despite the lack of a true duel, Harry felt that anything would help. He wished that Bellatrix was available but she had told him that she had some last minute errands to run and wouldn't be available.

As he became absorbed in his exercise, he didn't notice the door open and close until after he heard clapping after finishing a particularly difficult spell chain that he had been working on perfecting. Whipping around, he saw his mother standing there looking at him with an undiscernible look on her face. Growing a bit concerned, he asked, "Mother, is everything okay?"

Without a response, she made her way over to him and drew him into a hug. After a few moments, Harry didn't know what exactly was going on so decided to hug her back. Finally Dorea said, "You're just growing up so fast. I remember when you first came into my life, so small and cute. Now you are getting all grown up, about to go compete in your first dueling tournament. Where has the time gone?"

"Mum it's not that big of a deal!" the young man protested.

Pulling away from him, she combed a hand through his hair studying his features with a hint of amusement. "Son, you won't understand until you have children of your own. Only then will you have an idea of just what it is like to have your children growing up and taking on more and more responsibility of their own while you have to just stand aside and watch.

The following day found the future Bloodworth Lord standing in line to register for the tournament being hosted in Germany. Apparently the Germans were making a push to open their borders back up to the outside population in hopes to show that the Grindelwald influence was truly a thing in the past. Their thought was that a dueling tournament would provide a fun, competitive atmosphere that people all over the world would come to attend. Harry was getting the full effect of the seemingly thousands of witches and wizards that decided to attend the event. Everywhere he looked, he would see different robe styles that were unique to each culture. He noticed that the European countries seemed to all follow a similar trend and the Americans were of the same style. The trends outside of those two were based more off of geographical regions than anything, with the African countries usually consisting of more earthy colorings and cuts that would allow for better ventilation and the Asian countries having colorful artistic designs that spoke to their history more than simply going for fashion.

So caught up in his observations, Harry let out an uncharacteristic jump as he suddenly felt an arm looping through his own. Fighting back a jerk of his own arm out of the persons grasp, he maintained his cool long enough to glance to his side. Noticing the blonde hair blue eyed beauty of Narcissa, he relaxed fully into her grip throwing her a wide smile.

"Cissa! What are you doing here? I thought you couldn't make it!" he exclaimed, just barely keeping the conversation relatively private.

With a smile of her own in return she said, "And miss out on your first ever tournament? Not a chance. You should know better that Harrison."

"Well I'm so glad you're here! Have you seen all the people here? There are so many people from different countries. It is amazing that we don't see at least a few of them more often back at home."

With a smirk at his enthusiasm Narcissa decided to go along with him, "Yes it is quite amazing, you would think that the international communities would be a bit more interconnected than what we see."

"Well if you would get outside of England, you would see that there is much more intermingling between the countries." A voice interrupted. Turning around towards the intrusion, Harry and Narcissa noticed a light-haired man that appeared to be in his mid to later twenties. With a raised eyebrow, Harry demanded, "And you are?"

With a chuckle, the unnamed fellow took a few more steps towards the young couple, "I just couldn't help but overhear your conversation and noticing the accent I already knew where you must've come from. Looking at you two I would assume that you have more of a pure blood upbringing so I am a little surprised that you don't know why there aren't many foreign guests to your country, considering, your kind tend to make them feel quite unwelcome and by default dissuading many more from coming."

Drawing themselves up at the insult to their heritage, Harry said "Excuse me Sir, but I believe I asked for your name, NOT your mere opinion and slander in regards to what you may believe to be true about any purebloods in our society. So, since you don't seem to be very forthcoming with the one thing that I requested, I believe that we will take our leave and that if you would be so kind as to not interrupt a conversation in which you aren't a part."

With another chuckle the man stated with a mocking bow," As you wish."

As he disappeared into the crowd, Harry realized that he still hadn't registered to enter yet. Grasping Narcissa by the hand, he started to weave his way through the crowd towards a glowing letters that were hanging in the air indicating the sign-in. Upon arriving to the desk, he noticed that there were four different lines with one having mostly children his age, the next with people a little older, the third line sported Bellatrix idly fiddling with her wand twirling it around her fingers. The last line had a wide variety of age groups from just older that Bellatrix to as old as Professor Flitwick. Realizing that he needed to get in the first line he turned to Narcissa and with a quick "I'll find you after" went and joined the queue.

While he was waiting he looked at some of the other people in his line. He knew that he was going against people that would be older than him but he wasn't too intimidated. The majority seemed to be older than him, probably the maximum of 13 years old for the group he was competing in, here and there was the occasional individual around his own age of eleven almost twelve. There were the expected seemingly cocky individuals, who had a sneer on their face as they looked down on the others around them in what he assumed was supposed to be an intimidating air. Also spread throughout were the people struggling with nerves, small beads of sweat dotting their foreheads. The largest group seemed to be the people that were just there to have a good time, joking around with newly made friends. Harry noticed only one or two others that seemed to behave like himself showing a mask of pure apathy towards anything and everything going on.

With nothing better to do considering the line seemed to be moving quite sluggishly, he began a mental review of the spells that he knew and the strategies that he could incorporate. He knew how to duel extremely aggressively forgoing almost all forms of defense outside of dodging while keeping a heavy offensive going. Bellatrix seemed to have more of a style like this except it was almost like she was dancing around her opponents spells. He also knew that if he couldn't overpower them quickly with the heavy attacks, then he could resort to heavy transfiguration using the environment to throw the opponent off balance with their own spell work. His last style that he would resort to is the combination approach. What all that entailed, well, he decided that he would just have to wing it when the time came. With a mental nod of readiness, he refocused on his surrounding noticing that it was almost his turn.

When the last person in front of him he stepped forwards to see a middle aged woman with curly brown hair and a kind smile, "Sir are you here to sign up for the thirteen and under tournament?" With his confirmation she continued, "Well all I will need is for you to read over these rules to make sure you are aware of what could get you disqualified or outright banned from dueling ever again. After that I will need you to sign your name at the bottom of the page after you finish."

As he skimmed over it he noticed that anything of an overtly dangerous nature such as a bone breaker or a blood boiling curse would be enough to get you a disqualification where any of the unforgiveables would automatically result in your permanent ban from any other dueling tournament in the future. He was assuming that the magic in the signature would guarantee that you couldn't participate in any more. After he finished, he quickly signed his name with a flourish and handed the document back to the attendant. With a smile of thanks he left to go find his family while waiting for them to announce the tournament bracket.

Thirty minutes later found Harry talking to his family. His parents, the elder Potters, Arcturus, Cygnus and Druella, Narcissa, Lily, and James all made it out to watch Bellatrix and himself. Mid conversation about what they thought their odds of winning it all, they were interrupted by a man in a suit who had applied a sonorous charm announcing the brackets as being posted. Upon hearing this Harry and Bellatrix made their way over to the boards where Harry saw that he would be up against a guy from the United States called John Kennedy, and Bellatrix was going against a girl from Eastern Europe whose name he couldn't imagine how to properly say. With nothing else to do, he headed over to the arena in which his duels would take place. According to the boards, up until the semifinals, all of the different divisions would be taking place on different arenas with the last couple of rounds being at a central location so that everyone would be able to watch.

Making his way over to his appropriate area, he noticed that Arcturus, Cygnus and Druella must have went to watch Bellatrix. Looking over the rest of the family, his eyes locked on to Narcissa's as he threw her a smirk and a wink and turned his attention towards what he was hoping to make his personal domain. He noticed that the arena was literally a circle of what appeared to be a padded flooring, with what material he didn't know. He assumed it was simply for safety purposes or to assist in eliminated potential injuries. A frown marred his face as he realized that it would make transfiguration a bit more difficult if he didn't have material to work with. With those last thoughts, he prepared himself.

 _Meanwhile in Gringotts_

"King Ragnok, I just received this missive from Lord Black."

The old grizzled goblin snatched the document looking over it quickly as a feral grin slowly spread over his face, "Ahh it is about time we got to do something like this again, thank you Jaggerhook, make it happen. Oh and tell the Lestrange account manager that he may want to talk to you about being an assistant account manager for yourself, seeing that you will have that much more responsibility."

With an equally feral expression, the Black Account Manager said "As you wish."

 _Back in Germany_

"And first up in our thirteen and under age group we have a Mr. John Kennedy from the United States facing off against Britain's Harry Potter-Bloodworth. This is Mr. Kennedy's second year here placing fourth in this age group previously with Mr. Potter-Bloodworth making his debut. So ladies and gentlemen, LET'S DUEL!"

With those two words still ringing in his ears, Harry narrowed in on his opponent, he was one of the kids that he saw earlier that appeared to be a bit on the cocky side. Even now, he held his wand loosely as if he wasn't taking things seriously. Suddenly, he whipped up his wand and bellowed _"Expelliarmus!"_ The Bloodworth heir quirked an eyebrow and casually stepped to the side. This action seemed to infuriate the American who seemed to take it as an insult to himself that his opponent didn't just take the spell. Harry smirked as his opponent began casting faster with his accuracy becoming worse and worse. 'Professor Flitwick and Bellatrix make his spells seem like they are barely moving.' With that thought he remembered their warning to not play around with an opponent and to finish them quickly. Deciding to heed their advice, he waited for a slight lull in his opponents spell casting and sent a trio of a stunner, disarming charm, and a langlock all three tagging his opponent in his chest and both arms. Watching his opponent hit the mat he turned to look at his family who gave him a smile and nod of approval.

Harry stood across from his next opponent a girl from Italy that he failed to catch the name. She had according to his dad trounced her opponent quite easily so he didn't need to underestimate her. Looking at her he could tell that she was also sizing him up. At the word 'DUEL" they both sprang into action with the girl throwing a series of stunners. Harry moved to the side and continued running that way hoping she would try to predict his next step. As she did what he had hoped, he quickly spun the other way and retaliated with his first set of spells. She hastily threw up a shield focusing on the spells careening towards her. While thus distracted Harry conjured a rope which he flung towards her feet wrapping quickly around her. Before she had a chance to get out, he cast an _aquamenti_ causing her to stumble backwards and get tripped up in the rope causing her to fall down. Without wasting anymore time he sent a quick disarming charm and a stunner for good measure. With a signal from the judge, the fight was at an end and Harry was one round closer to the final.

The third round, Harry was back in the arena, this time he was squaring off against a dark skinned boy from Egypt. If Sirius and James were to be believed, this guy only made it as far as he did by luck not skill. Nevertheless Harry decided that he wasn't going to look at it that way. Looking at the judge for the signal, after the word was given he shot off a jelly legs jinx followed by a langlock. The other boy dodged the first but got struck by the second. The Egyptian looked like he was beginning to panic as he was trying to cast but couldn't seem to be able to sound it out. 'Looks like knowing how to cast silently is more than beneficial after all' Harry thought as he sent a couple of disarming charms at his opponent drawing a close to the duel. 'I wonder how Bella is doing' he pondered as he walked back towards his family.

His fourth and last duel before the semifinals was against a short boy from China. Rumor had it that he called himself the dragon and tended to lean towards more fire based spells and would try to use heavy hitting curses otherwise. Refusing to be fazed, Harry looked forward to this match as he had never exactly fought against someone relying on such a tactic. He figured that dodging the flames wouldn't exactly be that effective and that holding a shield would get tiresome after a duration. Thinking hard about what he could do, it came to him. With a small grin he stepped into the ring and upon the signal, put his plan into effect. He quickly sent a high powered blasting spell at the ground between the two and sent another spell that would create smoke to obstruct his opponent's vision. Seeing flames being shot from his opponents, towards his left, he transfigured the shrapnel from his curse into a wall that would block the flames and allow him to cast around. Upon completion he ducked behind it after noticing his smoke had dissipated enough to where visibility wouldn't be an issue. Before he could cast again, he saw a ball of flames heading his way causing him to get back behind his barricade. Deciding to wait out the flames, he realized that his opponent wasn't letting the spell go. Becoming a bit impatient, Harry banished his make shift wall towards the source of the flames causing the elemental spell to cut off abruptly as his opponent had to dive out of the way of the glowing hot debris. Harry quickly stunned the boy before he could get back up ending the duel. Seeing that he beat 'the dragon' Harry wiped his brow from the sweat that had accumulated from his proximity with the heat. "Give it up for Mr. Harry Potter from England, he is the final contestant to make it to the semifinals for the thirteen and under age group. As you all know, the semifinals will be taking place tomorrow, so get excited everyone!"

The next morning, Harry and family were back at the large building that was playing host to the tournament. As soon as they walked through the doors, Harry excused himself and hurried over to the boards with Bellatrix to see when they would be going. Arriving there he noticed that the semifinals would occur in the order of age groups with the thirteen and under, going first and the adult division going last. After the first round, then the finals would occur in the same order directly after. So with that knowledge, he made his way back to his family. Walking up he noticed that his instructor, Professor Flitwick was there conversing with his parents dressed robes that declared him as a former world champion. Deciding that he shouldn't be rude and walk up unannounced, he made his presence known, "Master Flitwick! You made it!"

The diminutive man turned around with a smile on his face, "Harry, of course! I wouldn't miss it for anything. After all I have to make sure that you actually learned something from our practices. "

With a smile on his face, Harry replied, "Well I guess I will just have to prove it to you now, I go first today."

On that note he bid his temporary farewell receiving a hug from Narcissa and his mother for good luck. Making his way down to the floor, he walked over to the official that was waiting with a girl from Spain named Isabella García. She was a taller dark haired girl with a slightly tanned skin tone and deep green eyes. She seemed to notice that he was looking at her as she met his eye and gave him a wink causing Harry's cheeks to flush. Little did he know, Narcissa was at this point glaring daggers at his competition. Before he could fully collect himself, the official told the two to take their places. Arriving there Harry quickly clamped down on his errant thoughts as he focused on his current objective. He assumed if that little situation with Isabella was anything to go off of, she would be trying to get him off balance by distracting him. Narrowing his eyes at her he decided that she would get no mercy from him. As soon as he received the signal he sent a flurry of spells her was automatically putting her on the defensive. Not giving her a chance to counter, he slowly made his way closer to her and when he was only a few paces away, he sent a blasting hex at her feet throwing off her concentration and causing her to drop her shield when he placed a stunner into her chest. Looking over at his family he noticed an oddly smug look on Narcissa's face which made him feel a bit confused. Thinking nothing more of it, he made his way over to them to get ready for Bellatrix's match.

After watching a few pretty boring matches from the other competitors in his age group and the fifteen and under group, it was finally time to watch Bellatrix. As she squared up to her opponent, he noticed an odd gleam in Bellatrix's eyes and as soon as she received the signal he saw why. To say that it was a one sided contest would be an understatement. She moved FAST, even more so than she normally would do with him, and that wasn't the only thing. Her opponent was lucky to get off one spell which she gracefully pirouetted around. Outside of that one spell, Bellatrix never allowed the guy to get anything else off as she quickly and efficiently took away not only his ability to verbally cast but also bound him physically with a rope while removing his wand, finishing it off with a stunner. Harry never realized that his mouth was hanging slightly open in awe of how efficiently she handled that until he felt Narcissa manual close it for him with mirth shining in her eyes. Bellatrix daintily borderline skipped her way out of the arena over to the family and gave Harry a smirk when she noticed her awed expression.

The next round featured the young light-haired man that had interrupted Narcissa and himself the day before. With a scowl firmly planted on his face, he had to begrudgingly admit that the guy was a skilled duelist. At least he had finally caught his name, a Mr. Jameson Rolff hailing from Denmark. Putting him out of his mind, Harry focused on what would be the main event for himself, the final. Walking down to the arena he noticed that he was facing off against a boy that looked to barely be young enough to remain in the age group. He was announced as Alexai Romanov, and had close cut dark hair with a perpetual scowl on his face, while sporting a built frame for his age. Harry couldn't help but think this guy would be out for blood.

Since it was the final, the officials insisted on both giving the boys a recap of the rules and a handshake to represent good sportsmanship. Instead of a good natured shake however, Harry felt as if the young Russian was trying to break his hand, of course his whispered comment of, "I hope you are ready to be carried off by the healers" did nothing but reinforce that observation. After Harry had managed to extract his hand away, he took his position across the arena. The seconds ticked by as both opponents glared daggers at each other, finally the signal was given. "DUEL!"

Both boys waited a moment prepared to react for their opposites initial salvo, seeing that the other wasn't yet casting, they both let loose a quick stupefy which did nothing but deflect off each other. The intensity quickly picked up from there with neither of the two holding anything back. The tempo became so fast paced where Harry barely had time to think, it was becoming a game of act and react with little time in between. Harry managed to create a slight lull in the conflict by using a trick that he had used earlier and letting loose a smoke screen to allow him to get a slight breather and a chance to create something to transfigure. Like earlier he sent a high powered blasting hex towards the ground creating a large amount of debris. Unfortunately, unlike his last opponent he had cast it against, Romanov had quickly vented the smoke away and began casting towards Harry who had to abandon his plan temporarily. Put on the back foot, Harry was doing everything that he could to dodge and shield against the plethora of spells being sent his way. Knowing that he had to take control of the situation, he began to sidle his way around the side of the arena causing his opponent to mirror his actions. Suddenly Harry dived to the side and sent a couple of quick spells towards the debris that was surrounding Romanov before turning his attentions back to the Russian. Not allowing the other boy the time to see what he had done, he made a point of deflecting a couple of spells away before sending a stream of concussive blasts towards his opponent forcing him backwards. His opponent abruptly tripped over a short stool that Harry had transfigured and charmed to go behind him. Thinking himself victorious, Harry casually strolled across the arena cockily twirling his wand. When he was only a few paces away his opponent quickly rolled over and sent a cutting curse towards the Bloodworth heir who barely reacted enough to have it only glance across his side. Seeing red, Harry went into a fury throwing every nonlethal spell he could think of as fast as he could. He failed to hear the official signal the duel was over and only managed to stop his casting once he became too exhausted to cast anymore. Looking around, he realized that all eyes were on him and it was deathly silent. Before he could do much else, his vision started to fade and then his world went black.

 _Back in Gringotts_

"Goblin, I demand to be taken to my vault, I need to make a withdrawal." Came the snide voice of the Lord Lestrange.

The goblin working the desk didn't so much as look up at the human as he continued counting out galleons. Not one used to be kept waiting Lestrange became infuriated.

"Creature, you will find someone to take me to my vault this instant!" he all but screamed.

The teller, deciding that he should address the arrogant human in order to allow him to work in peace said, "Name please."

Lestrange's face contorted into a mixture of confusion and rage, 'Since when did they not know who I am? And do they think that they can get away with this type of disrespect?' He finally ground out, "You know exactly who I am goblin, don't test my patience anymore."

Instead of cowering in front of the enraged human the teller let loose a feral smile which caused the wizard to take an unconscious step back. "Without a form of identification, we can't take you to a vault. So unless you would like to give me your name so that I can see if you in fact have an account, which your reluctance to provide would make me assume otherwise, I would like for you to leave so that I can get back to my work.

A bit cowed by the goblins actions, the Lord Lestrange finally gave his name in a slightly subdued manner.

Making a show of checking his ledger of accounts, the teller finally turned to the impatient wizard and said, "I'm sorry Mr. Lestrange but it would appear that you do NOT in fact have an account with us. Have a good day."

The man almost couldn't believe his ears, and stood there for a few minutes trying to process what he had just heard. Turning back to the teller who had returned to his work, he began berating the goblin, "You low life creature! How dare you tell me that I have no account! I was here only last week! I will have your head for this!"

So caught up in his rant, he failed to notice the guards making their way towards him. Suddenly the teller stood up and gave his coldest glare to the wizard. "You will never come into this establishment again 'Lord' Lestrange, you dare to insult me the King of the Goblins? Look around you wizard, and I ask you. Make anything insult towards myself or any other goblin under my command, and you will find yourself lacking a tongue. Now, leave and never come back." King Ragnok declared.

Looking around, Lestrange indeed noticed that he was in a compromised position and abruptly stormed towards the exit. As he was about the reach the door, he heard the voice of King Ragnok call out, "Oh, and before you get any big ideas of revenge, just know that we have wizards with much more power than yourself that we can call on for assistance if ever need be."

On that note the man flung open the doors and apparated away. Behind the counter, the King let out a chuckle and thought to himself, 'I will have to let Lord Black see a memory of this, It was just as entertaining as I thought it would be.

A/N: So I thought about trying to do an accented version of English for the Russian, but I have more of a background in French so wouldn't know where exactly to start. So good news, I took the time to actually write out all of my current characters and where I want to possibly go with the storyline so considering that I have been winging it up until this point, I would say that it is an improvement. Also I don't want to get into a habit of requesting reviews, but leave one and let me know what you think or what I can work on. Oh and one last thing, I do have all the way through his seventh year planned out to an extent, so this could be a longer project to say the least. We will just have to see how it all pans out and if I can somehow find the necessary time to put into writing this story.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The sounds of low conversations buzzed in his ears as he gradually emerged from the land of Morpheus to the waking world. The twitching of his hand and eyes signaling the other occupants of the room to the change in the young man caused all conversation to stop. Harry could hear someone shuffling over closer to his position. Being a bit confused as to what was going on, he gave one last push through the sands of sleep opening his eyes fully before shutting them quickly wincing at the seemingly bright light. Deciding to take things a little slower, he let himself become accustomed to the source of his temporary blindness. Blinking away the last few webs constricting his train of thought, he propped himself on his elbows looking at the individuals around him. He noticed a middle-aged woman dressed in the traditional healer robes standing in the corner patiently. To his left was Narcissa, with Arcturus and Cygnus flanking her, on his right were his grandparents and adopted father with his mother Dorea sitting next to him, her left hand clutched onto his as if he was a life raft.

As he wondered how he came to be in that situation, brief images of a duel flashed through his mind leaving a muddled mess with little that he could make heads or tails from. Noting the look of confusion crossing his face, the healer decided to take a step forward before nodding to his mother. With the nod of confirmation in reply, Dorea took a small breath to collect her thoughts before looking to her son once again.

"Harrison, do you remember what happened?" the dark haired woman questioned carefully, her eyes searching his face for any sort of sign.

Focusing on her, the boys eyebrows scrunched together in a sign of intense concentration. With a slow shake of his head, he replied, "N-not" * _cough*_.

The healer poured him a glass of water gave to help wet his parched throat, he continued, "Not really. I remember bits and pieces of me dueling with someone before waking up here. What-," here he paused, trying to figure out exactly what he was wanting to ask. Finally he decided on something simple. "Can someone tell me what happened? Or why I am in what looks like a hospital?"

Seeing the impassive faces of his family member caused him to become slightly more confused. He thought _what can be so wrong that they aren't able to give me a simple answer?_ In what seemed like a response directly to his thoughts, Narcissa spoke up, her soft voice drifting across the room.

"That is the thing Harry, nobody is quite sure. You were dueling with that Russian boy, and he got a lucky hit on you drawing blood. The next thing it was if you went in a trance and you started casting faster and faster until it seemed as if you were nothing but a blur. Then before the official could step in and stop you from hurting your opponent farther, you just stopped and stared down at him before passing out. We don't know why."

Silence met her words as he processed the new information. Sensing his discomfort Narcissa reached for his free hand, pressing it softly, sending a measure of comfort to him before pulling back placing her hands back in his lap. His mother then sent a squeeze of her own before turning to the healer.

"Healer Rosewood, is he in a condition to leave? If so I believe it would be best for us to get home."

With a nod the newly identified woman replied, "If you would let me just run a couple of tests first and then I will let you know. Now if all you could take a step outside so that there is minimal interference with the scans."

After all of his family had left the room, the healer began waving her wand over him slowly. Doing that a couple of times she then tapped her wand on his feet, knees, hips, wrists, elbows, and finally his shoulders before asking him to stand up and move around. With his confirmation of everything feeling fine, he noticed her flicking her wand quickly around the room before feeling a wave of magic pass him. Quickly turning around he itched to pull out his wand as he noticed that the healer had hers out and to her side starting at him with a quizzical expression. The need to pull out his own wand only grew, unfortunately he caught it in his peripheral as being on his bedside table.

As his shot nerves from the previous disconcerting situation flared once again, he started getting fidgety wondering what was going on and why this woman was just staring at him saying nothing. Slowly, as if making a sudden move would for some reason cause her to attack, he inched his way closer to his wand. He hoped that if he could get his hand on it, that he would at least be able to protect himself until his family could maybe come back in and help. Right before he could get there, he froze as he heard a soft chuckle from the strange healer. His eyes narrowed on her to try and determine what caused the change.

When he finally made eye contact with her, she spoke, "It is a good thing that you are cautious Mr. Potter. I have only heard rumors, more myths really, about people having an experience such as your own. A person that is skilled no doubt somehow entering a state of mind that allows them to supersede their level and do more than anyone ever thought possible. However, there is one common theme to these stories. The individuals showing these happenings have a strong tendency to disappear… For Good."

His eyes flared open wide as he closed the remaining steps to his wand before baring it towards the "healer." A cold tingle of fear slowly crept down his spine, causing him to give an involuntary shiver. Her chuckle yet again broke him out of his state of mind.

"Oh, you have nothing to fear from me Mr. Potter, I am after all a healer. That being said, I have a duty to look out for my patient's well-being. So consider yourself warned Mr. Potter, I would hate to see that the myths have a foundation in truth."

Suddenly her entire demeanor changed as she dropped the ward and flung open the door before declaring in a cheerful voice. "Everything checked out, you are free to go home Mr. Potter! Just remember to take a couple of nutrient potions to help you replace all the energy you burned off from the dueling. Oh and congratulations on your win! Have a good day!"

Being yet again thrown off balance from the conversation leading to the transformation in conduct that the healer had just underwent, he barely managed to give a passible nod of the head before almost stumbling out the door into the waiting arms of his family. After a concerned look from his mother and Narcissa who both seemed to pick up on his tumultuous thoughts, they all quickly made their way to the floo. Meanwhile all Harry could do is contemplate what exactly the healer was trying to say with her warning. Did she really think that someone would come after him? When the time for him to call out his home came, he realized that he would just have to be ready for anything.

As the next few days passed his mother, Narcissa, and Lily grew gradually more concerned with Harry's behavior. To the run of the mill observer, it would appear as if everything was fine. However, to those closest to the boy, you could tell that the skin around his eyes seemed a bit tighter than normal and that he seemed to always be checking out what was going on around him. That wasn't even including that he seemed to be pushing himself even harder in his daily workouts.

Lily thought that it could just be from the tournament and the subsequent event following it with him passing out and all and thus convinced the other two to just give him time. Narcissa on the other hand thought that it was probably something different entirely. Considering that she arguably spent more time with him than anyone else including his guy friends, she figured that she probably knew him almost as well as she knew herself and thus decided that she would have to confront him about it. Deciding that if things didn't turn around for him by the end of the week, then she would confront him then.

As the weekend came ever closer, Harry received a summons to meet with Arcturus. Harry decided that it must be something either pertaining to the tournament or the unknown reason for why he could've passed out. With this in mind, he informed his parents who were lounging in the sitting room reading a couple of old musty tomes that he would be gone for a bit before stepping into the green flames.

Emerging from the fireplace, he took a moment to brush the small amount of soot off his clothes before looking around the slighter darker themed manor. Not seeing anyone in the immediate area, he began making his way up the stairs past the many portraits of family members from the past. Upon arriving outside the closed door of the Black Patriarch's Study, he cleared his mind of a few errant thoughts before knocking firmly three times and taking a step back.

After a few moments, the door opened revealing the family features of Arcturus. With a short nod and a firm "Come In" the older man stepped to the side revealing Sirius already sitting in one of the chairs across from the desk. Harry was initially confused as to why the other boy could be there until it clicked, _The Lestranges!_ Upon realizing what was more likely than not about to be discussed, Harry focused back to the matter at hand, more than a little interested in just what would be said about that.

His excited thoughts drifted away as he watched the Black Lord make his way around the large desk and into his imposing chair. Instead of playing the typical mind games that many in politics would do with an opponent, he decided to get straight to the point.

"I've brought you here today to tell you the update on what is occurring with the Lestrange family." He stated in his gravelly voice.

Instantly the boys sat up even straighter in their seats as they gave him the utmost attention. Noting their demeanor, the man smirked lightly before continuing.

"The Lestrange family is as of now, in financial shambles. The only thing that they probably have left, if I know their Patriach at all, is a limited number of galleons that had probably be sequestered away at their own home. I would assume that they are only slightly better off than the Weasley family at best and at worst, are going to have to look for someone to purchase their home in order to survive."

At this he sat back, crossing one leg over the other before resting his clasped hands in the desk in front of him. He noted that the two boys almost seemed to be bursting at the seams with questions. With a small glare, subtly telling the boys to contain themselves a bit better, he turned to Sirius first.

"You will both have your opportunity to ask questions. That being said, in the effort to prevent myself from the headache that your talking over each other is bound to cause, we will start with Sirius first and alternate between you from there until your questions have run their course."

The aforementioned boy then spoke up, "Grandfather, what exactly will happen to that money?"

"The goblins will be taking fifty percent of the total amount and we will be receiving the rest. Now out of that, I will be making sure that Bellatrix receives at least half as she was the one they targeted." He replied with a nod of approval at the question. Looking towards Harry, the man signaled that it was his turn.

The emerald eyed boy then asked, "What will happen now that their money is effectively ours? Won't they try and retaliate?"

Following another nod of approval, a malicious glint entered Arcturas' eye as a cruel smile spread across his face, "Oh I do so hope that they do, for if they stand against us, well… Let's just say that their family name will be ground out of the pages of history and into nothingness."

Both boys initially were taken aback by the vicious statement, before remembering just what almost happened. Nodding almost simultaneously in approval, Sirius spoke up again, "What is to stop them from being able to appeal to the law? I mean they could potentially have a case against us couldn't they?"

The young boy's words elicited a low chuckle from the aging man, "Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, I thought I had taught you better than this? WE for ALL intents and purposes RUN the government. The Lestranges were never big players, only able to throw their money towards certain causes to gain the votes necessary for whatever agenda they were trying to push. The Blacks on the other hand have almost a stranglehold on the on the 'dark' faction because people know that financial pressure is the least of their worries when it comes to losing favor with us. So let's see them try and find enough idiots to back them up in a potential conflict. Oh, and before you even ask, they know that we are the reason behind their new financial status. They also know if they were to go after the goblins, even in the Wizengamot, that we would block them at every turn and that they would get next to nothing accomplished."

Finally the opportunity came for Harry to ask the question that had been burning through him ever since he heard of the smaller creatures' involvement, "Lord Black, why are the goblins even doing what you requested? What reason do they have to potentially bring the wrath of wizards down on them? "

"And there is the question I have been waiting on since you have both entered my study," Arcturus exclaimed. "The answer to that question can be answered by a bit of a history lesson really."

With both of the boys now patiently waiting, the man continued, "As you both know, the goblins and wizards have had many, many years of animosity, hatred and violence causing both societies to at some point be on the brink of collapse. However if you had paid attention to history, not all of the wars between them and ourselves have been what anyone would classify as one society versus another. All of the more recent issues have been between individual clans or renegade groups of goblins and small sects of wizards that had in some shape or form slighted said goblins.

Before that is what should be considered the Great Wars, the true battles between species in an attempt to control the magical world and everything under its control. You may wonder what exactly the cause of such battles was and why neither side ever seemed to be able to work together. The answer to that being that wizards have had a strong tendency to persecute the warrior race every a chance they had. That being said, the goblins are like I just said, a WARRIOR race. They were too prideful of their heritage to just stand to the wayside and allow themselves to be walked over like a mere rug, so they would fight back.

Then back in 1602 in the last of the Great Wars, a few members of our community formulated a plan to give the goblins an opportunity to stop the conflict between the races. You see, these wizards decided to play towards one of the goblins other stand-out traits… their Greed. So this small group of wizards used their cunning to devise a way to accomplish what seemed to be an impossible task and in a under a brief parley with the then King Durrak of the Goblins, showed the creatures of a vision of wealth for the nation.

Those wizards single handedly convinced the goblins to give them the chance to make it happen. So the wizards, who were already very influential in amongst their peers, brought more and more to their cause before finally getting legislation for the Goblin Nation to become their own independent state as well as the solitary holders of the nation's wealth.

After several years of ups and downs with the wizards and goblins slowly adjusting to their newfound relationship, the goblins and the heads of wizarding society declared the missive as a success leading us to where we now are today.

What the history books never made mention of nor did they ever probably know the extent of the truth behind the deals that were made is that both of your ancestors were part of this group of wizards to enact this change. Your father's namesake, Sirius, the original Orion Black was one of them. For you, Harrison, your ancestor, Emanuel Slytherin, was also part of that council. There was one more, one Xander Dreth that was also part of that council, but his line has been extinct for a couple of centuries now.

The true genius of our ancestors' actions was not actually from creating the peace between nations, even though that is what you would hear from historians. Where they truly surpassed all levels of expectation was through the deals that were made on behalf of our families. The goblins promised us that if we were to give them the promised vision that they would stand behind us as we faced our own enemies.

You boys have just had the opportunity to bear witness to just one of the few ways that they would assist us if need be."

He paused reexamining the two before finishing his train of thought, "This is one of the reasons why it is so important that you two learn your history and how to effectively run your families. For when you both come of age and become the Lords that you were born to be, you will need to know how to effectively wield the power at your very fingertips. Now, you two are dismissed back to whatever it is that you had planned for the rest of the day, whether it is spending time with your betrothed Harrison, or Sirius if you were going to go spend time with James."

Standing up, the two boys gave a slight bow of respect before making their exit, leaving behind them a man lost in his thoughts.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After the meeting with Arcturus Harry reverted to more of a contemplative manner over the next couple days as if he was truly thinking hard on the past and what that meant for him in the future. That was not to last as he slipped back into his intensive actions that he maintained since the tournament causing Narcissa to become concerned yet again. She knew that there was something that all of them were missing in regards to her betrothed, that there just had to be something that would have caused this change in demeanor and she was determined to find it out.

Narcissa thought about what the best way for her to get through to him would be. On one hand, if she tried to brute force the truth out of him, she knew that he would close up almost instantaneously and would refuse to disclose anything at all. However, that method did have a small chance of working if it meant catching him off guard enough to where he was unintentionally let it slip in his surprise. The other option she considered was the opposite, a subtle approach. She thought that maybe if she made more of an effort to be with him even more and even go so far as to get him to practice dueling with her instead of by himself then she could slowly work through his guarded emotions to where she could eventually ask him questions that may have him provide the information without her having to directly dig for it. The last technique that she considered would be more of a combination of the two, continue to worm her way into his everyday routines and after a little while when he dropped his guard, hit him with the blunt question.

Her first inclination was to stick with the completely subtle way of things considering it tended to suit her more 'Slytherin' personality. The only issue with it was that Harry had the capability of showing just as much cunning as she did and she feared that he would see right through her façade. So ruling that out and already having decided that brute force would be just as poor of an endeavor, she decided that she would have to go with the more hybrid approach. Finishing her breakfast, she said goodbye to her family and ignoring the looks that her sisters were sending her, she stepped through the floo before coming face to face with the inquisitive face of Lily.

"Hello Cissy, what are you doing here already? Usually you don't come until the afternoon?" questioned the red headed girl.

Narcissa replied, brushing the traces of ash off of her robe, "Well Lily, I thought that I would come join Harrison in his training. He has started already has he not?"

Lily let out a sigh, as if she was releasing a weight off her shoulders, "He is up every morning no later than six, at least that is what the elves tell me, and he starts running and doing even more work outs up until breakfast. Usually by the time the family sits down at nine he is dripping in sweat and instead of taking his time to talk to mum and dad he just rushes to finish eating then excuses himself to go do more."

The more that the adopted girl said the more pronounced that Narcissa's frown became. She realized that it was bad enough just by why all she had seen, but she had never guessed the extent of his focus on training. With a mental sigh, she came to the conclusion that if she was truly going to be dedicated to helping him and finding out exactly what was ailing him, it was definitely going to be a lot of work not to mention that it sounded as if sleeping in would be a thing of the past for her. Focusing back on Lily, she paid careful attention to see if there was anything else that she could take from the conversation.

"-It is nonstop with him. As soon as he finishes working out and eating, he is in the library doing reading more and more books on dueling techinques as well as application of transifiguration and charms in a fight. That is not to mention the curses that he is also doing his best to memorize. Then after lunch you know what he is like, always in the dueling room for hours and hours on end, and then he is back to reading more as soon as you leave. Mum is worried, dad seems to think that he is just doing what he needs to in order to improve even more and to leave him be. I tend to agree more with mum though, but if I ever ask him anything, all I get is a short meaningless answer before he goes back to whatever he was doing. "Finally finishing her small rant, Lily took a breath and gave the blond a hopeful look.

"I am going to find him, maybe I will be able to figure something out." As Narcissa began to walk out of the room, she paused and added almost as if it was an afterthought, "Thank you for telling me what's happening with him, I have been a bit concerned myself. I will see you at lunch."

The halls of the manor were as immaculate yet homey as ever, she couldn't help but to appreciate the subtle changes that Dorea had made here and there to make it even more fitting a place for them to live. As she approached the door to the dueling room, she opened it only to find that it was empty. Stepping in, she looked around in confusion only to remember that Lily had told her that Harry usually was reading until lunch. That left only two places for him to be, the library or his room. Thinking that the library would probably the best bet, considering the plethora of books and comfortable reading chairs and tables, she made her way to the large heavy doors that protected the room. With a breath to steady her nerves, she pushed one of the doors wide enough to slip through, careful to close the door behind her.

Walked around the isles of books she searched for the dark haired boy that had been plaguing her thoughts. Finally she found him hunched over one of the small tables in the back with a small pile of books on each side of him, he seemed to be jotting notes on a little journal as he read. Instead of interrupting him, she picked up a book on the uses of charms and their applications in dueling and sat down across from him without a word. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed him look up at her and open his mouth as if to say something. She had to focus heavily on not smirking at his slack jawed expression and instead settled on raising an eyebrow at him asking, "Did you need something?"

Harry's jaw worked itself up and down, nothing being verbalized. Then he stopped, cleared his voice and tried again, "Cissa what are you doing here already? It isn't even quite noon yet?"

"Oh, well I have decided that I will be joining you in your training from now on. I figured that if you feel that you need to train as hard as you are, then I need to as well, if anything so that you won't have to do it alone. Anyways, as your future wife, I would like to be able to take care of myself in a fight as well, considering you tend to pick fights with some of the more aggressive families out there." She finished giving him a knowing look, which also served to cut off his protest at her training with him.

Instead of trying to argue with her, Harry decided that he would just get back into the swing of his studying, only looking up occasionally to switch out a book or to jot down a note. As the day continued, Harry was a bit surprised when Narcissa stuck with him every step of the way and when he got to the dueling portion of his training after lunch, didn't quite know what to think when she stood across from him and demanded that he duel her instead of the dummies. Remembering her words about needing to be prepared to defend herself against any of the enemies that he made, he quashed any rebuttal to her and instead started firing away, only stopping occasionally to give her a tip here and there to help her improve any more. Later on instead of leaving after their dinner like normal, she even joined him in the library and sat down to study more with him, only heading home when the clock struck nine o'clock in the evening.

The next morning Harry woke up at six am sharp, quickly throwing on some workout clothing. As he made his way down the stairs to go outside, he was startled by the green flames of the floo flaring up. Warily he pulled out his wand before the flames settled down revealing the fair features of Narcissa Black in similar clothing to his own.

"Um, Cissa? What are you doing here already?" the dark-haired youth asked.

Doing what seemed to be her trade-marked expression when dealing with bad questions, the girl raised an eyebrow before asking, "What part of training with you did you forget about? I meant what I said yesterday."

"Alright, well I hope you know what exactly you're getting yourself into, but if this is what you want then I won't say anything else about it."

About thirty minutes later, Narcissa found herself huffing and puffing and pleading to whatever Gods that there may be to put her out of her misery. She couldn't help but be amazed that Harry just kept going almost as if he was a man possessed. Knowing that she had to keep pushing herself if she was going to be with him every step of the way, she ignored the protest of her body and kept growing through the motions of the workout. Finally came the time to end, and it took all of her will power to not cry out in tears of joy.

Making their way back inside, they took their seats at the table and piled their plates up. Narcissa didn't even feel as if she had the energy to give the proper greeting to the others that were present, missing the look that Lily sent her because of it. As soon as she finished eating, she drug herself to the shower, cleaning off before heading to where she knew Harry would be waiting for her in the library. Arriving to the table that he was sitting at, she slumped down in a chair and grabbed a random book from his pile. Starting to read, she lost herself in the intricacies of the creative usage of distractions or even illusions to give an edge in a fight. Something as simple as a levitation spell could be used on an opponent's shoe to cause them to lose their footing which could then be used to your advantage.

The longer they sit there, she failed to notice her eyes drooping more and more until suddenly she found herself being shaken awake from an amused Harry.

Struggling not to laugh, Harry asked, "Are you okay? You know you don't have to try and keep up with me. I do understand if you aren't able to. I mean you can just come and duel with me if you want to train a little."

Rubbing her eyes as she tried to bring herself back into full cognizance, she processed what he said before steeling herself with fiery determination. Looking Harry in the eye, she maintained her earlier sentiments, "I will be sticking with you from start to finish. You are not going to be alone in this as long as I am able to be with you."

As the days continued, Narcissa could feel herself slowly improving. She was able to go longer and longer and her body was finally getting used to the new routine that the days provided. The only thing that ever changed with their joint routine was when Dorea reminded them that they were still going to have a couple hours for lessons with James, Sirius and Lily so that eventually they would know all that they needed to know to fulfill their eventual roles in society. Lessons, which Narcissa took as a nice little break from the constant workouts that Harry and herself were doing.

The summer progressed and both Harry and Narcissa could feel the benefits from the rigor of everything they were doing. Narcissa felt that she had improved leaps and bounds in not only her physical stamina but also in her dueling capabilities. She knew that she wasn't as strong magically as her betrothed even though she herself was above average, so she had gotten extremely creative with her wandwork using charms to their utmost potential. Even Harry, who always prided himself on the ability to think outside of the box and create traps that his opponent would never see coming was impressed with her ability to use even the most simple charms whether it was creating a sensation that the opponent was slow to react to opening up and opportunity for them to be put down by one of her curses or if she would pull one of their feet out from under them. Either way, she was becoming a formidable duelist in her own right. Harry himself was able to expand upon his spell knowledge, easily tripling the amount that he was able to successfully and effectively perform even nonverbally.

However, despite the improvements with each other, Narcissa never forgot the main goal behind her joining Harry and one day in late August, she finally felt that he might actually talk to her. Walking in the library and noticing her beau already reading away, she sat down across from him as normal, except this time she didn't grab a book of her own. Clearing her voice she started speaking.

"Harry, I need you to tell me something. What happened to where you felt that you needed to push yourself to the brink with your training? I meant what I said over a month ago with why I want to train with you, but please just tell me. Why exactly are you pushing yourself so hard? I know it wasn't because of the tournament exactly, I mean you won. So it had to have been something outside of the matches themselves and if I had to guess, after it. Please just talk to me about it." The blond pleaded, her eyes locking with his own hoping that he would comply.

Instead of replying instantly, Harry just looked at the girl across from him, considering what she asked and trying to decide if it was worth telling her the real reason behind his actions. Suddenly her words from before yet again came to mind and he knew that she was at risk because of him. Hanging his head for a moment as he tried to ignore the sudden fear of someone attacking Narcissa because of him, he slowly looked into her eyes as he began speaking in low tones.

"After the tournament, when you all had left me with the healer, she started looking at me strangely. Then she began to talk about rare abilities and the state of mind I entered in the last duel. But the thing that I guess got to me the most was more of a warning. She said that the people that tend to show the same signs that I did tend to disappear. "

Narcissa's eyes widened in worry, she knew that someone that would take the risk to even mention something like that even when that person's family was just outside of the door was not one to ignore. Even if that person themselves did not perform the act, there were people that did deserve the wariness that Harry was showing. It was all making sense now why Harry would feel such a strong need to improve himself. He never wanted to risk her words coming true for himself.

"-So I just decided that I need to be better, no, I HAVE to be better. I don't want to be in a position to where I could get taken. I don't want to be in a position to where I can't defend you or Lily or mum or dad or anyone else that I care about. If pushing myself harder than I ever had is the way for me to achieve those goals, then I think it is a low price for me in the long run." He finished looking intently at Narcissa, watching her reaction carefully.

Never averting her gaze from his own she replied, "Then I will also do my best to make sure that you never have to worry about that."

The training continued all the way until it was finally time to head back to school. They took a day off to get their supplies from Diagon Alley and to just generally relax, with Harry having Ashara his familiar who seemed a bit peeved at him for his lack attention sticking to him wherever he went refusing to let him out of her sight. The next morning found them all in the hustle and bustle of Kings Cross Station. As they wove through the crowd and through the barrier, Harry and Narcissa stopped to wait for the rest of their family. Suddenly Harry felt his world go black. Narcissa happened to turn in time to see a cloaked figure dragging Harry through the crowd only having the time to yell "NO!" before pulling out her wand and chasing after him.

The crowd seemed to stir even more as people bustled around trying to see where the source of the yell came from, coming together creating a human wall of sorts that Narcissa was struggling to push through. Eventually she squeezed through a couple that shifted at just the right time. However as soon as she came to the edge of the crowd she saw the one thing that haunted her ever since the conversation with Harry. The dark-haired boy disappearing through a floo unconscious in the cloaked kidnappers arms.

A/N: Hello everyone, hope that you all enjoy the relatively small update, I know it isn't a whole lot but it was important for how I plan to take the story forward. As I like to say, drop a comment and let me know what you think or provide some constructive feedback.


	13. UPDATE

I just wanted to update you all and tell you that I apologize for not being able to update in such a long time. Unfortunately reality and the time constraints of life have not been kind enough to give me a plethora of time, therefore I will be giving both of my stories up for adoption. I will update everyone again when I am contacted about the adoption and let you all know who is carrying the torch from here.


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